Versatile Spectroelectrochemical Cell for in Situ Experiments: Development, Applications and Electrochemical Behavior

Abstract: (Photo)electrochemical processes are involved in many fields of science and technology. The use of spectroscopic techniques coupled to (photo)electrochemistry, are mandatory to get information about interfacial processes on scale ranges from millimeters to the nanoscale. The development of spectroelectrochemical cells (SEC) contribute to the progress of the field of (photo)electrochemistry and its impact in science and technology. Therefore, in this work, we describe in detail the development of a versatile SEC that can be used for several in situ techniques. We performed electrochemical and computational experiments to analyze the response of our SEC as a function of the working electrode size, position and distance to the window. We found that our SEC behaves as the conventional cell when the electrode is far from the window. However, important differences arise in the thin layer configuration. The computational experiments suggest that to mitigate these problems, it is important to perform in situ experiments in the thin layer configuration using electrodes as small as possible.