Electrochemical behaviour of polarised carbon fibre micro-electrodes

Abstract

It has been shown previously that when a pair of glassy carbon electrodes are used in the electrolysis of a 0.5 M sodium sulphate solution, the anode is electrochemically attacked. In the work reported here, the behaviour of a pair of carbon fibre micro-electrodes was examined and it was found from chronopotentiometric graphs that the carbon fibre anode showed a similar behaviour to a glassy carbon anode. Scanning electron micrographs showed that electrolysis alters the surface of the carbon fibre anode whereas the cathode surface remains unchanged. The voltammetric curves obtained confirmed that the carbon fibre anode was markedly changed after electrolysis.