Transient behavior of an electrolytic diode

Abstract

The transient behavior of an electrolytic diode system was studied. A gel-like electrolytic diode was incorporated in a capillary microfluidic chip. The microfluidic platform guaranteed a constant composition of solutions on the diode boundaries. The current responses of the electrolytic diode to step-like changes of the imposed DC electric voltage were measured. Some of these transients were accompanied by a short-time overshoot of electric current density. In order to explain this phenomenon, a mathematical model of the electrolytic diode system was developed. Dynamical analysis of the model equations confirmed the existence of the electric current overshoots. Because the results of the experimental and the numerical transient studies were quite similar, we have explained the physical meaning of three selected overshoots by means of an analysis of the reaction-transport processes inside the electrolytic diode system. The transient experiments carried out in this study indicate that our physical concept of the electrolytic diode system presented in previous papers is correct.