Mass Transport Properties and Influence of Natural Convection for Voltammetry at the Agarose Hydrogel Interface

Agarose hydrogel, a solid electrolyte, was investigated voltammetrically in terms of transport properties and natural convection effects using a ferrocenyl compound as a redox probe. To confirm the diffusion properties of solute on the agarose interface, the diffusion coefficients (D) of ferrocenemethanol in agarose hydrogel were determined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) according to the concentration of agarose hydrogel. While the value of D on the agarose interface is smaller than that in the bulk solution, the square root of the scan rate-dependent peak current reveals that the mass transport behavior of the solute on the agarose surface shows negligible convection or migration effects. In order to confirm the reduced natural convection on the gel interface, scan rate-dependent CV was performed in the solution phase and on the agarose surface, respectively. Slow scan voltammetry at the gel interface can determine a conventional and reproducible diffusion-controlled current down to a scan rate of 0.3 mV/s without any complicated equipment.