The Influence of Geometry on Continuous and Split Bipolar Electrochemistry Applied to Corrosion Studies

Abstract

Bipolar electrochemistry provides a wireless approach for driving redox reactions and has been applied in corrosion, electrodeposition, sensing, and electrocoagulation. Despite the extensive study of the method, the significance of geometric aspects of the experimental setup still remain ill-explored, and a justification for geometries used in previous works is missing. The aim of this study is to provide information about how current/potential distributions of a split bipolar electrode in an open configuration are affected by geometric components. Through PDE-constrained optimizations, the most influential parameters are identified to be the bipolar electrode size, electrolyte height, and applied current. It is shown that a general Wagner number may be used to inform the form of the current distribution for bipolar electrochemistry but with limitations. The results also show that the current through the bipolar electrode is directly associated with cell components and higher bipolar current efficiencies will promote the primary current distribution.