Thin-layer derivative cyclic voltabsorptometry

Abstract

Abstract It has been demonstrated that the derivative of the absorbance of the reaction product at a particular wavelength with respect to time (d A /d t ) during a slow potential scan at an optically transparent thin-layer electrode (OTTLE), displayed vs. potential, is morphologically equivalent to a thin-layer cyclic voltammogram. When thin-layer conditions are obeyed, the number of electrons or formal potentials are easily obtained either from logarithmic analysis of A vs. E plots or from d A /d t vs. E waveforms. As the optical signal is free from background contributions, both modes appear to be useful when dealing with not very “clean” electrochemical systems (i.e. systems with high faradaic/capacitive background and/or multiple products).