Summer Picnic and Recognition of 50 & 60-Year Members
 

Thursday, June 18, 2009

our guest speaker will be

Dr. Bob Rodgers,
Research Solutions and Resources LLC
"An Introduction to Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy"

The lecture is at 6:00 PM in Bowen Auditorium,
Picnic is at Carl Fields Center immediately following lecture

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ABSTRACT

Electrochemistry deals with the interaction of electrons with molecules, and with reactions associated with the reactants or products of that interaction. One of the electrical variables, voltage (E), or current (I), is controlled and the other is measured.
Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) is a small perturbation, nominally nondestructive technique that measures the relationship between E and I as a function of the frequency of the perturbation. By analogy with Ohm’s Law (E = I R), the ac components of E and I are related by E = I Z. The impedance (Z), unlike simple resistance, depends upon frequency. Impedance is easily measured for the frequency range from 1 MHz to 10 μHz, so that processes with characteristic times from microseconds to days can be studied.
EIS began its rise to popularity in the mid-sixties/early seventies. The advent of computer-controlled instrumentation allowed the experiment to become routine and rapid. Today, EIS is being used to study corrosion; to evaluate paint and coating protection; to study fuel cell chemistry and to monitor cell status; to measure lubrication oil quality; and as a detection scheme for sensors.

Biography
Dr. Bob Rodgers received undergraduate training at The Polytechnic Institute of NYU (then Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute) and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Clarkson University. After a post-doc at Cal Tech he spent seven years teaching at Michigan State University and Lehigh University. Bob spent the next twenty-nine years working for manufacturers of commercial electrochemical instrumentation, first at Princeton Applied Research (PAR) and later at Gamry Instruments.

Over the course of over forty years, Bob has been active in the areas of Analytical Voltammetry, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), Corrosion, and general Electrochemistry. He pioneered the first commercial Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy software while at PAR, and was active in specifying four generations of that successful product. He is the author of twenty scientific articles in the areas of electrochemistry and instrumentation.