ABSTRACT
Like spectroscopy, electrochemical methods constitute a generic class of analytical procedures, not any one specific technique. And like spectroscopy, their breadth of applications is vast, covering general quantitative chemical analysis as well as being integral to a number of environmental analytical procedures. This chapter considers three different kinds of electrochemical methods: those in which electrical potential is directly related to analyte concentration, those in which electrical conductivity is directly related to analyte concentration, and kinetic methods in which an electrical potential is applied to an analysate and the resulting current or current-time response is related to analyte concentration. Electrical potentials are generated in electrochemical cells as a result of oxidation/reduction reactions. Oxidation/reduction or redox reactions, as applied in electrochemical analysis, are carried out in cells which consist, essentially, of two conducting electrodes immersed either in a single solution or in two different solutions that are in electrical contact with one another.
