Eur. Phys. J. E (2009) 30: 245-256
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10512-9

Regular Article

Behavior of an electrolytic cell containing two groups of ions submitted to a step-like external voltage

¹ CNISM - Dipartimento Fisica, Politecnico di Torino, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
² Departamento de Física, Universidade Estadual de Maringà, 87020-900, Maringà, PR, Brazil

^* e-mail: marco.scalerandi@infm.polito.it

Received: 1 April 2009
Revised: 9 July 2009
Accepted: 2 September 2009
Published online: 20 October 2009

Abstract

The transient and equilibrium behaviors of an electrolytic cell containing two groups of ions submitted to an external voltage is considered. The analysis is performed analytically and numerically, considering the electrolytic solution as a dispersion of ions in an insulating liquid. According to our results, the dynamic of the system corresponds to a multirelaxation problem and the relaxation time related to a new type of free diffusion is able to capture the essential characteristics of the evolution of the variables of the system. We also show that, contrary to what expected, the relaxation time related to the ambipolar diffusion is not a solution of the eigenvalues equation.