Software and Instrumentational Methods of Enhancing the Resolution in Electrochemical Noise Measurements

Abstract

Several methods of enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio for instrumentation designed to measure electrochemical noise are practically tested. The experiments are carried out using model RC-circuits and lielectrolyte electrochemical cells. Strong limitations in the tested objects’ impedance values are found due to the input current noise of the instrumentation, especially during the parallel connection of several channels. The advantages of a two-channel scheme for automatically compensating the instrument’s self noise are demonstrated. Different methods of lowering the dispersion of the frequency dependences of the spectral power density of electrochemical noise are compared. It is shown that averaging over segments with an overlap is the most effective method but averaging over frequencies can lead to large distortions when investigating electrochemical systems.