Impedance Data Masquerading as Unusual Circuit Elements: Instrumentation Artifacts

• Main Author: Vanýsek, Petr
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1938-5862; 1938-6737
• DOI: 10.1149/1.3004032

Inherent part of any impedance measurement is interpretation of the data and making physical sense of the investigated system. The impedance response is just a snapshot of the whole system, capturing some of its properties, but neglecting or obscuring others. The method of explaining the impedance data typically relies on finding an adequate equivalent circuit and inferring from it some physical properties. In practice it is often seen that an element, which is unusual in electrochemistry, or in physical world for that matter, can be encountered. Thus, for example, sometimes an inductive element is observed. In some of such cases this can be explained by electrode roughening, pitting or by nucleation. In some cases, this explanation is not sufficient.