Galvanostatic CombiEIS Purpose

The Galvanostatic EIS techniques are used to characterize an electrochemical interface which is held at a fixed current. A small-signal AC-current excitation is applied to an electrochemical cell. The phase-sensitive AC response of the interface is measured as the frequency of the excitation signal is varied.

EIS is a particularly powerful tool for the study of coated-metal corrosion. It is also useful in almost every other area of electrochemistry, including research in batteries, electrode kinetics, and industrial electrolysis.

The output of an EIS experiment is a complex impedance spectrum. The term complex is used in its mathematical sense: containing both real and imaginary terms. An EIS spectrum is usually graphed as either a Bode plot (impedance magnitude and phase plotted versus frequency) or a Nyquist plot (imaginary impedance plotted versus real impedance). Analysis of the impedance spectrum can give you the following information:

  • Polarization resistance
  • Double-layer capacitance
  • Solution resistance
  • Coating-defect parameters
  • Mechanistic and kinetic information

The Galvanostatic CombiEIS script combines the time-saving advantages of the OptiEIS technique for low-frequency EIS with the high-frequency speed of standard single-sine EIS. With CombiEIS scripts you can obtain impedance spectra over the full instrument frequency-range, while saving a significant amount of time on the low-frequency portion of the spectra.