Applications

A typical electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) experimental setup consists of an electrochemical cell, a potentiostat/galvanostat, and a frequency response analyzer (FRA). This Application Note introduces common EIS experimental setups as well as details of the main experimental parameters.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a widely used multidisciplinary technique for characterizing the behavior of complex electrochemical systems. EIS is employed in the study of a range of complex systems including batteries, catalysis, and corrosion processes. This Application Note focuses on the basic principles of EIS measurements.

In this application note, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is used to test a commercial battery connected in two different ways. In the first EIS measurement, the battery is connected in a two-terminal sensing configuration. In the second EIS measurement, the battery is connected in a four-terminal sensing (Kelvin sensing) configuration. The difference in how the leads are connected results in different measured impedance values for the battery.

DC techniques do not provide any information about the internal dynamics of the PV device. Therefore, additional information can be obtained using time-dependent and frequency-dependent measurements. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in particular, offers the possibility to investigate the behavior of the device in the frequency domain under operating conditions, at various light intensities.

The way low-impedance devices, like fuel cells and battery, are connected to a load influences their performances. In this document, a comparison of EIS results on a commercial Li-ion battery is shown. Different EIS measurements have been performed, changing the way the battery has been connected to the potentiostat.

In this application note, the advantage of recording the raw time domain data for each individual frequency during an electrochemical impedance measurement is described.

In the application note AN-EIS-004 on equivalent circuit models, an overview of the different circuit elements that are used to build an equivalent circuit model was given. After identifying a suitable model for the system under investigation, the next step in the data analysis is estimation of the model parameters. This is done by the non-linear regression of the model to the data. Most impedance systems come with a data-fitting program. In this application note, the way NOVA is uses to fit the data is shown.

In this application note, a combination of PGSTAT and electronic load is use to perform electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in a fuel cell operating at high currents.

The use of impedance measurements on fuel cells under load makes it possible to study the influence of the different fuel cell elements on the behavior and (if detectable) on the ageing of the fuel cell. To perform high current density measurements, the Autolab systems can be connected to a third party electronic load. This extends the measurable range of the instrument by several current decades.

Here, the most common circuit elements for EIS are introduced which may be assembled in different configurations to obtain equivalent circuits used for data analysis.

Explore how to construct simple and complex equivalent circuit models for fitting EIS data in this Application Note. Nyquist plots are shown for each example.

The TSC SW Closed and TSC Battery cells are compact systems designed for measurements on air or moisture-sensitive materials, such as those used in batteries. In this document, two testing procedures are explained. The first procedure is withpotentiostatic cyclic voltammetry (CV), while the second is via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).

In this Application Note, EIS is applied on three coated aluminium samples, before and after the stepwise dissolution measurement (SDM). This technique has been reviewed in the Application Note AN-COR-08.

The DuoCoin Cell Holder is introduced. EIS measurements on a commercial coin cell battery are performed. Differences in impedance between the four-terminal configuration and two-terminal configuration is highlighted, putting in evidence the importance of having a direct four-terminal configuration, when low-impedance DUTs are investigated.

This Application Note presents the Mott-Schottky measurement, an extension of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), on a popular semiconducting material.

The International Standard ISO 17463 describes the determination of the anticorrosive properties of high impedance organic protective coatings on metals. This technique uses cycles composed of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements, cathodic polarizations and potential relaxation. This application note shows the compliance of the Metrohm Autolab PGSTAT M204 and flat cell with the standard ISO 17463.

To improve the performance of electrochemical energy storage devices like batteries and supercapacitors, one can focus on enhancing the ion conductivity (ƠDC) of the electrolyte. It is a common method for obtaining ƠDC values of different electrolyte systems, to carry out electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) experiments, at different temperatures, in a 2-electrode setup.

The shelf life of foods and beverages depends among other things on the packaging material used. Metals are ideally suitable for packaging, as they can be laminated with various passivating and food-compatible layers. Electrochemical measurements such as Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) make it possible to check the layers for damage.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy or EIS has been used effectively to measure the polarization resistance for corrosion systems and for the determination of corrosion mechanisms.

In this application note, we demonstrate how to determine the lithium ion transference number of a commercial liquid binary lithium ion battery electrolyte, based on the very-low-frequency electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (VLF-EIS) method.

In this application note, we demonstrate how to determine the through-plane tortuosity τ of a commercial lithium ion battery cathode material with known porosity and coating thickness, based on the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method.

The proton conductivity of membranes made of a proton conductive material is an essential quantity to be determined. In this application note, we present the results of an exemplary study of σDC(T) determined by impedance spectroscopy for a novel solid proton conductor in its dry state.

In this Application Note the use of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) for the characterisation of PEM fuel will be demonstrated. It will be shown that EIS is a powerful diagnostic tool for the determination of the following factors that can influence the performance of a PEM fuel cell.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a powerful technique which provides information about the processes occurring at the electrode-electrolyte interface. The data collected with EIS are modeled with a suitable electrical equivalent circuit. The fitting procedure will change the values of the parameters until the mathematical function matches the experimental data within a certain margin of error. In this Application Note, some suggestions are given in order to get acceptable initial parameters and to perform an accurate fitting.

The main components of a battery are the positive and negative electrodes, together with the electrolyte, which provides only the ionic conductivity. The most common electrolytes are in the liquid state. Therefore, a separator is needed to provide a physical separation between the electrodes. The separator is soaked with electrolyte. The MacMullin number is a parameter used to determine the quality of a separator, in terms of ionic conductivity, when soaked with an electrolyte. The MacMullin number can be calculated, using the results of data fitting of two EIS experiments and the geometric factors of the measurement cells. In this application note, a commercial electrolyte is employed, together with a porous filter, used as a separator.

In real life, often, corrosion is a result of several reactions and it is not possible to determine a priori the reaction mechanism. In such cases, the polarization resistance can be used to determine the resistance of the metal under investigation against corrosion.

This Application Note explains manual and automated iR drop correction with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cautions against using less accurate methods.

In battery research, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a necessary tool to investigate the processes occurring at the electrodes. With a common three-electrode battery, EIS can be performed sequentially first at one electrode and then at the other electrode.

In this Application Note, stepwise dissolution measurement (SDM) is applied to aluminum samples coated with different materials, in order to gain insights in corrosion protection. The combination of the Autolab PGSTAT204 with the 1 L Autolab corrosion cell and the NOVA software provides the suitable setup to perform SDM and other corrosion experiments.

The relative permittivity εr, also known as dielectric constant, is of great importance in materials characterization. It can be defined as the ratio between the amount of electrical energy stored in a material and the amount of electrical energy stored in a vacuum. One of the easiest way to obtain the relative permittivity is to calculate it from capacitance values. In this Application Note, five techniques to retrieve capacity values have been compared.

When current flows through an electrochemical cell, a potential drop between the RE and the WE occurs. This voltage drop is influenced by the electrolyte conductivity, the distance between the reference and the working electrodes, and the magnitude of the current. This application note gives a basic explanation of the Ohmic drop, its causes and the impact on measurements.

This application note describes three different measurement methods of the ohmic drop and the ohmic resistance presented. Current interrupt and positive feedback are fast methods, but care is necessary for their use in order to avoid data misinterpretation or damage to the setup. EIS, on the other hand, is a more reliable method to determine the ohmic resistance. The ohmic drop can be compensated by the potentiostat during the measurement, or a mathematical correction can be applied to the data.

This application note presents the experimental details and an overview of the most important findings from the EIS and CV experiment to study the structure of a model solid electrolyte interface forming on a planar glassy carbon electrode in contact with a typical organic battery electrolyte.

The kinetic and mass transfer parameters of the electro-oxidation reaction of TEMPO were measured using the TSC Surface measuring cell for the Autolab Microcell HC system. The cell allows the study of electrochemical processes in liquid electrolytes in a three electrode configuration under temperature control.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) are currently subject of intense research in the framework of renewable energies as a low-cost photovoltaic (PV) device. To characterize photovoltaic devices, two additional frequency domain methods can be used, based on the modulation of the light intensity. These two methods are Intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS): measurement of the transfer function between the modulated light intensity and the generated AC voltage, and Intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS): measurement of the transfer function between the modulated light intensity and the generated AC current.This Application Note illustrates the use of the Metrohm Autolab PGSTAT302N equipped with a FRA32M module, in combination with the Autolab Optical Bench kit to perform IMVS and IMPS characterization of photovoltaic devices.

This application note shows how it is possible with Metrohm Autolab PGSTATs and the Metrohm Autolab Optical Bench, to retrieve information about the mechanism and the kinetics of the back reaction, a side reaction which limits the performances of dye-sensitized solar cells.

Corrosion of metals is a problem seriously affecting not only many industrial sectors, but also private life, resulting in enormous costs. In this application note, the results gained during electrochemical corrosion studies on different metals are compared to literature data.

A corrosion inhibitor is a substance that reduces the corrosion rate of a metal. A corrosion inhibitor is usually added in a small concentration to the corrosive environment. This application note shows how Metrohm Autolab instruments can be used to check the quality of inhibitors.

A reference electrode has a stable and well-defined electrochemical potential (at constant temperature), against which the applied or measured potentials in an electrochemical cell are referred. A good reference electrode is therefore stable and non-polarizable. In other words, the potential of such an electrode will remain stable in the used environment and also upon the passage of a small current. This application note lists the most used reference electrodes, together with their range of use.

The mass transport characteristics of the diffusion controlled oxidation and reduction of the ferri/ferro cyanide couple was studied using the Autolab RDE with a low noise liquid Hg contact.

The Devanathan-Stachurski cell (or «H cell») is successfully used to evaluate the permeation of hydrogen through sheets or membranes. As small amounts of hydrogen pass through the sheet or membrane, a very sensitive potentiostat is required for its detection. A study of the hydrogen permeation properties of different iron sheets is discussed in this Application Note while taking the instrumental requirements into account.

This Application Note explains how researchers can determine the underlying chemistry and potential failure mechanisms from cycle testing batteries with INTELLO.