Additive differential pulse voltammetry, instead of double differential pulse voltammetry

A new electrochemical double pulse potential technique called additive differential pulse voltammetry (ADPV) is proposed. This technique is inspired by the original idea of Birke et al. [Anal. Chem, 53 (1981) 852] of recording two differential pulse (DP) voltammograms and it consists of plotting the sum of these two signals versus the first pulse potential, although in this paper the proposal is to obtain the ADPV signal through just one experiment. ADPV behaves in an identical way to the triple-pulse technique double differential pulse voltammetry (DDPV) for reversible processes when diffusion coefficients are equal for spherical electrodes and for any value of diffusion coefficients in planar electrodes. In the case of reversible electrode processes with amalgamation of reaction product or other more complex processes, ADPV is more advantageous than DDPV. This is due, among other reasons, to the fact that, under these conditions, a double potential step is much simpler to analyse than a triple potential step. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.