Development of an electrode/electrolyte interface model based on pseudo-distributed elements combining COMSOL, MATLAB and HSPICE

This work describes a Combined Simulation System (CSS) able to predict the electrical behaviour of a metal electrode in contact with an electrolyte. The system is based on a mixture of Lumped Parameters Equivalent Electrical Circuits (LPEEC) and Pseudo-Distributed Elements (PDE): a PDE is a network of basic equivalent electrical circuits, e.g. resistor and capacitor parallels, in which a geometrical information can be retained. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements have been performed on a standard solution of known electrical conductivity with Micro-Electrodes Array (MEA) devices in order to investigate set-up parasitic elements and electrochemical interfaces parameters. CSS performance has been compared to usual LPEEC fit approach in terms of both results accuracy and solving time.