The applicability of the superposition principle in differential pulse polarography

It is shown theoretically that the superposition principle is applicable to pulse voltammetry if the electrochemical system can be separated into a potential-dependent nonlinear part and a linear part. For systems not complicated by adsorption or electrode kinetics, the applicability of the principle depends on diffusion coefficients, electrode and cell geometry. For plane semi-infinite diffusion, applicability is expected; this is generally not the case for spherical electrodes or bounded regions (film electrode or thinlayer cell). The implications of the theory on differential pulse polarography are discussed and an experimental study on the applicability for iron(III), cadmium(II) and lead(II) is presented.