Chemistry 117: Electrochemistry

Winter 2017

Instructor: Nate Lewis, nslewis@caltech.edu

TA: Kimberly Papadantonakis, kimberly@caltech.edu

Office Hours: By appointment, G131 Jorgensen

Textbook: Bard & Faulkner, Electrochemical Methods, 2^nd Ed. ISBN: 9780471043720

The course will consist of 19 lectures, four homework sets, three laboratory assignments, and a final exam. The lectures are available on video, and can be downloaded here. The homework sets can be downloaded here. The course will also include two meetings to discuss special topics. After each homework assignment is due, solution sets will be posted here.

Safety training is required prior to participation in lab sessions, and the dates and times safety training sessions are TBA, tentatively during the week of Jan 9.

Additional materials (nobel lectures and papers, including Nicholson & Shain) are available here.

Homework Collaboration Policy: You may not consult any previous solutions or any answers to problem sets from earlier years or any published solutions you find for any of the assigned problems. Collaboration is allowed, but you must write up the solutions by yourself and you must understand the answers that you give. You may consult the course lectures, notes, and text for the homework sets.

Homework Late Policy: Problem sets are due to the box outside of 210A Noyes no later than 2:30 p.m. on the due date (unless otherwise specified by the TA). For each partial day that the homework is late, 25% will be subtracted from the final grade. In order to pass the course, all of the homework and laboratory assignments must be turned in (even if they are so late that no credit is given).

Tentative schedule:

Week of	Lecture numbers and topics	Reading in Bard & Faulkner, Chapters and Topics	Assignments and due dates	Lab or Special Topic
Jan 2	1 – Potential-controlled experiments	1 – Introduction and overview of electrode processes
Jan 9	2 – Potential-controlled experiments and Tafel/Butler-Volmer kinetics; 3 – Tafel/Butler-Volmer (cont’) and Fuel cells	2.2-2.4 – Potentials and selective electrodes 3 – Kinetics of electrode reactions
Jan 16	4 – Fuel cells (cont’d) 5 – Potentiostats and reference electrodes	3 (cont’d) – Kinetics of electrode reactions 15 – Electrochemical Instrumentation	PS 1 due Jan 18	Lab: double-layer capacitance, linear-sweep voltammetry, Tafel slopes
Jan 23	6, 7, 8 – Diffusion and potential-jump experiments	4 – Mass transfer by migration and diffusion 9 – Hydrodynamic methods		Special topic: polarography; Jan 25 at 2:30 in 121 Beckman Institute.
Jan 30	9 – Chronocoulometry	5 – Basic potential step methods	PS 2 due Thursday, Feb 2
Feb 6	10, 11 – Cyclic Voltammetry	6 – Potential sweep methods		Lab: rotating disk electrodes
Feb 13	12, 13 – Marcus theory and surface modified electrodes	7 – Polarography and pulse voltammetry	PS 3 due Feb 15
Feb 20	14, 15 AC techniques and semiconductor electrochemistry	10.1-10.4 – Impedance techniques	Labs 1-2 due Feb 22
Feb 27	16, 17 – Double layer structure, microelectrodes and ultramicroelectrodes	13 – Double-layer structure and adsorption		Lab: cyclic voltammetry
Mar 6	18, 19 – Marcus theory, homogeneous and heterogeneous electron transfer	12 – Electrode reactions with coupled homogeneous chemical reactions 18.2 – Photoelectrochemistry at semiconductors	PS 4 due Mar 9	Lab: cyclic voltammetry (cont’d) Special topic: semiconductor electrodes; Mar 9 at 2:30 in 216 Noyes.
Mar 13			Lab 3 due March 16 Final exam due March 16