Rotating Disk and Ring–Disk Electrodes
The book chapter authored by
S. Vesztergom
is published in K. Wandelt (ed): Encyclopedia of Interfacial Chemistry, 2018, pp. 421–444.
Abstract:
The most popular and widely applied hydrodynamic methods used in electrochemistry are those that involve rotating electrodes such as the rotating disk electrode (RDE) and the rotating ring–disk electrode (RRDE). RDEs and RRDEs are found in most electrochemical laboratories. They provide straightforward means for achieving stable, steady-state laminar flow conditions adjacent to electrode surfaces and thus enable us to study electrode reaction kinetics in the presence of well-defined transport limitations. This article gives a concise overview of RDEs and RRDEs, offers practical guidance to experimenters familiarizing themselves with these techniques, and describes basic strategies for the analysis of measured data. The article also gives an introduction to the most essential part of the theory of rotating electrodes. It includes a detailed description of the hydrodynamics of rotating disk systems, the derivation of the most often used equations (the Levich and Koutecký–Levich equations) used for the analysis of RDE measurements, and an introduction to digital simulation techniques that can be used to model RRDE measurements.
