Preparation of carbonaceous electrodes and evaluation of their performance by electrochemical techniques

摘要

Carbonaceous electrodes, from glassy carbon (GC), graphite rod or graphite powder, have been prepared for coulometric and voltammetric investigation. Beaker type graphite electrode of larger surface area was used as working electrode for the analysis of uranium and plutonium in solution by coulometry. Results have shown usefulness of the electrode for both uranium and plutonium analysis. Thus the graphite electrode can be used in place of mercury for uranium analysis and in place of platinum gauze for plutonium analysis. GC electrode ( from French and Indian material ), graphite or carbon paste electrode of smaller surface area prepared here have also been found to give satisfactory performance as could be observed from cyclic voltammetric (cv) patterns for standard K(sub 9)Fe(CN)(sub 6)/K(sub 4)Fe(CN)(sub 6) redox system. Especially the GC electrode, (French) polished to 1(mu) finish with diamond paste gave very low values (1(mu) amp.) of background current in 1M KCl and the difference in cathodic and anodic peak potentials ((delta)E values) was close to 60 mV from one electron transfer. Therefore the electrode can be used for various types of electrochemical studies relating to redox potentials, reaction mechanism, kinetic parameters etc. of different electrode processes. (author). 20 refs., 3 tabs., 10 figs., 8 photographs. (Atomindex citation 26:043990)