Electrochemical behavior of the redox probe hexaammineruthenium(III) ([Ru(NH3)6]3+) using voltammetric techniques

Abstract Voltammetric techniques lie in the measurement of the current against the potential that is scanned in a specific window. There are many possibilities for the excitation signal (E-t curve), the simplest being a linear scan (linear sweep voltammetry, LSV). This can be reversed to do a cycle that can be repeated (cyclic voltammetry [CV]). Potential steps can be added to the scan as in the case of differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) or square wave voltammetry (SWV). CV and SWV are diagnostic techniques that provide useful information. Moreover, DPV and SWV are very sensitive techniques because of the discrimination between faradaic and nonfaradaic currents and therefore very useful for quantitative purposes. Apart from this, SWV is a fast technique, which in many cases is an important advantage. In this chapter, these two techniques, DPV and SWV, will be considered using hexaammineruthenium(III) chloride as a model for performing the experiment. This is a redox probe with appropriate electrochemical behavior, very suitable to explain the basis and the parameters involved in these techniques. For the sake of comparison, CV will be also considered.