Issue 45, 2021

Reducing the resistance for the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis in materials chemistry

Abstract

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a highly applicable electrochemical, analytical, and non-invasive technique for materials characterization, which allows the user to evaluate the impact, efficiency, and magnitude of different components within an electrical circuit at a higher resolution than other common electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry (CV) or chronoamperometry. EIS can be used to study mechanisms of surface reactions, evaluate kinetics and mass transport, and study the level of corrosion on conductive materials, just to name a few. Therefore, this review demonstrates the scope of physical properties of the materials that can be studied using EIS, such as for characterization of supercapacitors, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), conductive coatings, sensors, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), and other materials. This guide was created to support beginner and intermediate level researchers in EIS studies to inspire a wider application of this technique for materials characterization. In this work, we provide a summary of the essential background theory of EIS, including experimental design, signal responses, and instrumentation. Then, we discuss the main graphical representations for EIS data, including a scope of the foundation principles of Nyquist, Bode phase angle, Bode magnitude, capacitance and Randles plots, followed by detailed step-by-step explanations of the corresponding calculations that evolve from these graphs and direct examples from the literature highlighting practical applications of EIS for characterization of different types of materials. In addition, we discuss various applications of EIS technique for materials research.

Graphical abstract: Reducing the resistance for the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis in materials chemistry

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
14 mei 2021
Accepted
08 aug 2021
First published
18 aug 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2021,11, 27925-27936

Reducing the resistance for the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis in materials chemistry

N. O. Laschuk, E. B. Easton and O. V. Zenkina, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 27925 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA03785D

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