Cleaning and Polishing Voltammetric Electrodes

From eDAQ Wiki
Revision as of 13:51, 21 March 2013 by PaulDuckworth (Talk | contribs) (voltammetric electodes should be cleaned where there is visully obvious surface contamination or a trial cyclic voltammogram in clean solvent indicates the presence of a coating)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

Resist the temptation tend to-over polish the electrodes. In most cases the electrode remains clean after the experiment, or could be washed clean with organic solvent, or dilute acid or base. Only if there is an intractable coating electrodeposited on the electrode, or after extended use, will the electrode need any polishing at all. Polishing should only be done if there is visually obvious surface contamination (use a magnifying glass) or where a trial cyclic voltammogram in clean solvent indicates that there has been surface contamination. Standard maintenance polishing should use 0.05 micron (or less) polishing powder, only a badly scratched electrode, or one with an extremely intractable coating would need to use 0.3 micron (or larger) powder.


In short:

1. Only polish when absolutely necessary. 2. Use only light downwards pressure when polishing. When polishing manually grip the electrode at its base (ie the end where it is being polished) 3. Only use 0.05 micron powder for routine polishing. 4. Only use 0.3 or larger powders if absolutely necessary for very contaminated electrodes.


ET069 and ET072 Leakless Reference Electrodes

The tip of these reference electrodes can become fouled with use. The tip of the ET072 can be washed or lightly polished (like a working electrode) to remove intractable adhering material, and in extreme cases you can even use a scalpel, or razor blade, to shave a thin slice from the tip (this just exposes fresh polymer junction).