Mass transport studies at rotating cylinder electrode: Influence of the inter-electrode gap

This study shows the effect of using two different inter-electrode gaps on the RCE mass transport characterization. The average mass transport coefficient was calculated using the limiting current technique, using the soluble reduction of triiodide (smooth RCE interface) and the copper deposition (roughness RCE interface) in KNO3 and H2SO4, respectively. Based on the analysis of the Sh = aRebSc0.356 correlation, the values of the constant a, associated with shape and cell dimensions, were 0.89 and 3.8, in the soluble system (I3−/I−), for the gaps of 2.4 and 3.2 cm, respectively, indicating that this coefficient increases with inter-electrode space. While for copper deposition, these values were 0.00081 and 0.014, for the gaps of 2.4 and 3.2 cm. The constant b, associated with hydrodynamic regime, exhibits values of 0.43 and 0.33 for the gaps of 2.4 and 3.2 cm, respectively, in the system I3−/I−, indicating that hydrodynamics on the smooth RCE diminishes according to the inter-electrode space. While for the system (Cu(II)/Cu), the values of b were 0.91 and 0.88, for the gaps of 2.4 and 3.2 cm. These values were higher for the copper deposition than for the soluble system, due to microturbulence at the roughened (and often powdery deposits) RCE interface. From the analysis performed in this paper is clear that inter-electrode gap and hydrodynamics on the smooth and roughness RCE interface (given by the nature of reduction reaction) modify the mass transport correlation.