Study of surface-active substances using alternating current voltammetry and mercury electrode by potentiostat without phase sensitivity modules

Abstract

Pursuing an effective and sensitive methodology for studying surface-active substances (SAS) remains a major challenge and continues to attract significant attention. Here, we propose and evaluate an electrochemical methodology that utilizes alternative current (AC) voltammetry in combination with contemporary potentiostats without an integrated lock-in amplifier. The proposed methodology effectively separates capacitive currents from faradaic currents and is compared to phase-sensitive AC voltammetry (PSACV), which is conventionally used to assess SAS. The practical applicability of this methodology is demonstrated by measuring SAS in real samples with complex matrices, such as seawater and atmospheric aerosol water extracts. Furthermore, the proposed methodology opens vast possibilities for its application in environmental sciences, where SAS play an important role.