Electrochemical nucleation with diffusion-limited growth. Properties and analysis of transients

A general equation for the potentiostatic transient for the case of electrochemical nucleation with diffusion-controlled growth has been published recently [L. Heerman, A. Tarallo, J. Electroanal. Chem. 470 (1999) 70]. This equation essentially is a correction to the model of Scharifker and Mostany [J. Electroanal. Chem. 177 ( 1984) 13] but leads to quite different predictions. This paper discusses the differences between these two models with special emphasis on the analysis of experimental transients. Numerical data are presented which allow the determination of the nucleation parameters (nucleation rate constant A and site density N-o). Finally, it is shown that plots of I/I-max versus t/t(max), which are widely used in the literature for the graphical representation of experimental results, are not very sensitive and can easily lead to misinterpretation of experimental results. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.