Dynamics of electron hopping in redox polymer electrodes using kinetic Ising model

Abstract

The analysis of diffusion-migration equations pertaining to electron hopping and physical displacement in redox polymer electrodes is carried out using kinetic Ising model formalism. It is shown that, by the appropriate choice of transition probabilities obeying detailed balancing conditions, a hierarchy of transport equations can be derived. Earlier transport equations due to Nernst-Planck and Savéant are derived as special cases. The dependence of apparent diffusion coefficient on number density of redox centres, polymer morphology etc. are pointed out. Several new insights concerning the microscopic basis underlying the hitherto known phenomenological equations are demonstrated.