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Electrochemical methods for determining ionic charge in solids

Nature Materials volume 20, pages 443–446 (2021)Cite this article

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Classical experiments from solid-state electrochemistry can be used to determine the charge of ions in solids. This Comment also clarifies how the charge of point defects fits with the standard picture of ionic charge, and highlights differences between these electrochemical experiments and methods that probe electrons directly.

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Fig. 1: Two electrochemical experiments to determine the ionic charge.

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Acknowledgements

R.A.D. acknowledges discussions with M. Martin. R.A.D. gratefully acknowledges support from the DFG (German Research Foundation) within the framework of the collaborative research centre ‘Nanoswitches’ (SFB 917) and D.N.M. gratefully acknowledges support by the Juelich Joint Redox Lab (JJRL).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physical Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Roger A. De Souza

  2. Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

    David N. Mueller

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Correspondence to Roger A. De Souza or David N. Mueller.

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De Souza, R.A., Mueller, D.N. Electrochemical methods for determining ionic charge in solids. Nat. Mater. 20, 443–446 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0790-9

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