Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
9
Characterisation of electrochemical cell for
textile electrode studies and quality control
G. PRINIOTAKIS, P. WESTBROEK AND
P. KIEKENS
9.1
Introduction
In this chapter, an attempt is made to characterise an electrochemical cell
and to describe a method for quality control of textile electrodes by inves-
tigating the behaviour of textile electrodes and comparing the obtained
results.
9.2
Characterisation of an electrochemical cell
9.2.1
Introduction
The characterisation of an electrochemical cell is discussed in order to
understand the parameters that are important and the relationships accord-
ing to which they contribute to the output signal of the electrochemical cell.
This characterisation will be done with electrodes made of palladium, which
is a precious metal and enables the electrodes to behave in a relatively inert
manner, owing to their stability and the fact that they do not significantly
complicate the behaviour of the electrochemical cell. The method of
concern is electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS),
which is
explained in Chapter 2 section 2.3
1
.
Relationships between output signal, which in fact is an impedance (
R
)
of the system, and concentration of electrolyte (
c
), electrode surface area
(
A
) and distance between electrodes (
d
) will be investigated in order to
produce an equation which shows the interrelationships between these
parameters. At this moment, a general equation can be formulated as
follows:
(
)
RfcdA
=
,,
[9.1]
9.2.2
Description of the electrochemical cell
The electrochemical cell consists essentially of two PVC plates, as shown
schematically in Fig. 9.1. The electrodes are positioned at the inner side of
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