A semianalytical method for simulating mass transport at channel electrodes

Date

2015

Authors

Holm, Thomas
Sunde, Svein
Seland, Frode
Harrington, David A.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry

Abstract

A method for simulating electrode reactions in channel flow is developed and efficiently implemented in the symbolic algebra program Maple™. The steady-state convective diffusion equation for fully developed 2-D laminar (Poiseuille) flow past one or more electrodes in a channel is considered for a charge-transfer electrode reaction between two soluble species. The case where axial diffusion (along the channel, x direction) is neglected and the diffusivities are equal has an exact solution as an infinite series, in which each term is the product of an exponential in x and a confluent hypergeometric function in y (across the channel). The practical implementation consists of evaluating a finite number of terms and numerically evaluating the two parameters in each term. Sturm–Liouville (eigenfunction) theory is used to reliably find the parameters for arbitrary values of the rate constants. Comparison is made with results from a commercial software package that uses a finite-element method.

Description

Keywords

Channel electrodes, Simulations, Symbolic algebra, Eigenfunctions, Sturm–Liouville, Maple

Citation

Holm, T., Sunde, S., Seland, F. & Harrington, D.A. (2015). A semianalytical method for simulating mass transport at channel electrodes. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 745, 72-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2015.03.019