Geometric Requirements of Solid Electrolyte Cells with a Reference Electrode

A range of solid electrolyte cell geometries has been evaluated in terms of their suitability for measurements of the working electrode polarization resistance in a three-electrode configuration. The potential and current density distributions in the cells are calculated numerically. If the current density at the working electrode is not uniform, the standard procedure of evaluating the electrode polarization resistance from the experimental data is inadequate and may lead to erroneous results. Simulations are presented for cells with thin electrolytes and for pellet-based geometries with large electrolyte thickness.