In Situ Characterization of Nanostructured Electrode Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage, Using Probe Beam Deflection Techniques

摘要: Nanostructured conductive materials of large surface area which are important in many areas of energy conversion and storage, including supercapacitors and fuel cells. While electrochemical techniques (e.g. cyclic voltammetry) assess the charge transfer processes at the electrode interface, the ion exchange process could only be inferred. Techniques of ion exchange determination, such as the electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) are of difficult application to porous electrodes since it requires fixing the porous material to the oscillating crystal. On the other hand, the techniques that monitor ion fluxes outside the electrode surface are able to study the actual ion exchange between a porous electrode and the electrolyte. Among them, Probe Beam Deflection (PBD) is a technique highly suitable to study porous electrodes.[1] The method uses a laser beam travelling parallel to the electrode surface …