I want to record the cyclic voltammogram of the aqueous solution of Sodium Polystyrenesulfonate solutions. Which reference, working and counter electrodes are suitable? What supporting electrolyte is suitable?. Thank you in advance.
Glassy carbon electrode only, Sodium salt of polysturenesulfonate itself will act as supporting electrolyte.
Do you suggest me to use Ag/AgCl,KCl as Reference Electrode, Glassy Carbon Electrode as Working Electrode and the Pt wire as Counter electrode. Can I use Pt disc electrode as Working Electrode? And as you have mentioned that sodium salt of polystyrenesulfonate itself will act as supporting electrolyte even though it is my analyte to study, I will not need to use KNO3 as supporting electrolyte? Can you recommend me any article where only Sodium salt of polystyrenesulfonate is studied by Cyclic Voltammetry. Thank you.
Glassy carbon disc, platinum mesh, Hg|Hg2SO4|H2SO4 reference, 0,1 M H2SO4 supporting electrolyte would be my first shoot.
To me available are Glassy Carbon disc electrode (Working Electrode), Pt disc (Working Electrode), Pt wire (Counter electrode), Ag/AgCl, KCl (1M) Reference electrode and KNO3 as supporting electrode. Can I plan the experiment using these? Let me know your opinion @ Szymon Oberebowski and Thank you.
Hi Ranjit - the most important question is what do you want to do with the sodium polystyrene sulfonate, and why? Do you want to oxidise it or reduce it? Convert it to something else or quantify it in solution? This will dictate what tools use choose for the job
Hi Leigh, thanks for the questions. I have aqueous solutions of different concentrations of sodium polystyrenesulfonate. I want to get the CVs of these solutions and check the variation of current as we move from solution to solution. Ultimate goal is to study the variation of amount of sodium ions in different solutions. And also wish to find the dissociation constants for each. There are various other experimental techniques to study this but I wish to compare the results to be obtained by CV. Thank you.
I'm afraid that will not be easy by CV. The sodium ions cannot be reduced in water, and any electrochemistry of the polymer will also be very difficult. CV changes the equilibrium, so it takes quite a lot of careful background work (e.g. on known systems) to be able to relate the voltammetry to the dissociation constant.
You could do voltammetry of a probe molecule that is sensitive to the Na+ content; but not only does this require careful work to find out the dissociation constant, the probe molecule itself can change this dissociation constant.
If you need to study this for polyelectrolytes - and it doesn't have to be sodium - then you can try to replace the sodium with a more electroactive cation. But non-Faradaic tools such as conductivity measurements will be easier and more appropriate.
Potentiometry might be a useful measurement, especially if you can obtain or make an effective sodium ion selective electrode.
Thank you very much for the explanation to help me in understanding this. I think I would better try to procure a Na-ion selective electrode and then connect it with the potentiostat. Do you think that this will help? Would you please provide me some paper/article where I can have more information on this. Thank you very much once again Prof. Leigh Aldous.
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