Journal Article

The Helmholtz model

Ivanov, Vladimir D.

2024

Overview

A century and a half ago, Helmholtz’s model was at the forefront of development. There is no doubt that this model came into being because of the experimental data that was available at the time. Not only Helmholtz but also scientists like Nernst, Maxwell, and Pellat made their contribution to the double layer model. It is difficult to be precise about the date of origin of the Helmholtz model. Helmholtz formulated the definition of a double layer in 1853. It was in 1874 that Helmholtz pointed out the similarity between the double layer of platinum electrodes and a capacitor, but it was a capacitor with leakage ( Ann. Phys . 226:483–495). Nevertheless, the 1879 article ( Ann. Phys. 243:337–382) is traditionally considered the foundational work. Perhaps this opinion should be revised in favor of the 1874 work. In addition to the theoretical model, this article briefly reviews the development of experimental methods for measuring double layer capacitance: the instruments used, the equivalent circuit, and so on. The author hopes that this article will be useful in the teaching of electrochemistry. Graphical Abstract

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Analytical Chemistry / Capacitors / Characterization and Evaluation of Materials / Chemistry / Chemistry and Materials Science / Condensed Matter Physics / Electricity / Electrochemistry / Electrodes / Energy Storage / Equivalent circuits / Experiments / Hypotheses / Measurement methods / Measuring instruments / Physical Chemistry / Review Paper