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satisfactory records of bioelectric signals and their choice requires careful consideration. They should be comfortable for the patients to wear over long periods of time and should not produce any artefacts. Another desirable factor is the convenience of application of the electrodes.
involves ions as charge carriers. Thus, picking up bioelectric signals involves interacting with these ionic charge carriers and transducing ionic currents into electric currents required by wires and electronic instrumentation.
electrode-electrolyte interface
This transducing function is carried out by electrodes
that consist of electrical conductors in contact with the aqueous ionic solutions of the body.
This introduces the electrode-electrolyte interface
process, electrode characteristics and different types of electrodes to be used for measuring ECG,EMG,EEG and other bio potentials.
of metal, are placed on or inside the body, they come in contact with body fluids which may be considered as ELECTROLYTES. Due to this contact between a metal and electrolyte solution, an electrochemical reaction produces a difference of potential between the metal and solution. The chemical reactions that occur between metals and electrolytes influence the performance of Biopotential electrodes.
containing ions. A net current that crosses the interface, passing from the electrode to the electrolyte, consists of (1) electrons moving in a direction opposite to that of the current in the electrode, (2) cations (denoted by C+ ) moving in the same direction as the current, and (3) anions (denoted by A-) moving in a direction opposite to that of the current in the electrolyte.
Electrodeelectrolyte interface
The electrode consists of metallic atoms C. The electrolyte is an aqueous solution containing cations of the electrode metal and anions.
electrons in the electrolyte and no free cations or anions in the electrodesomething must occur at the interface that transfers the charge between these carriers. What actually occur are chemical reactions at the interface, which can be represented in general by the following reactions:
(salt) solution.
Since it is a good conductor of electricity, has an
abundance loosely held free valance electrons, some of these enter the solution, making the neutral electrode positively charged with respect to the electrolyte.
Half-cell Potential
This results in a potential difference called a half-cell
potential. The value of this half-cell voltage for a silver electrode is approximately 0.8 V and for copper electrode it is approximately 0.3 V.
This relationship is known as the Nernst equation
Where a 1 and a 2 are the activities of the ions on either side of the membrane, R is the universal gas constant, T is the absolute temperature, n is the valence of the ions, and F is the Faraday constant.
placed in the electrolyte and, since the half-cell potentials for the silver and copper electrodes are 0.8&0.3V respectively, both the electrodes being positive with respect to the electrolyte, the PD between the electrodes equals 0.5V.
Silver Copper
+ ve
+ ve
electrolyte
electrolyte interface which results in an Electrical Double Layer, wherein one type of charge is dominant on the surface of the metal and the opposite charge is distributed in excess in the electrolyte lying adjacent to the electrode.
Half-cell Potential
The knowledge of the half-cell potential, which is determined by the
1) Metals involved,
second electrode. The half cell potential of the standard hydrogen electrode has been arbitrarily set to zero.
The metal undergoing the reaction shown has the sign and potential E0 when referenced to the hydrogen electrode
Electrode offset potential with silver electrodes applied on to the skin surface
The cross section of two silver plates used as
biopotential electrodes in contact with the body is called the electrode offset voltage.
chemically identical. However, in practice this is not so and some value of the offset voltage is usually present between the terminals of the applied biopotential electrodes.
This offset voltage will thus also be amplified along
those that are perfectly polarizable and those that are perfectly nonpolarizable. This classification refers to what happens to an electrode when a current passes between it and the electrolyte. Perfectly polarizable electrodes are those in which no actual charge crosses the electrodeelectrolyte interface when a current is applied.
Of course, there has to be current across the interface, but this current
current passes freely across the electrodeelectrolyte interface, requiring no energy to make the transition. Thus, for perfectly nonpolarizable electrodes there are no overpotentials. Electrodes made of noble metals such as platinum come closest to behaving as perfectly polarizable electrodes.
electrolyte changes the concentration primarily of ions at the interface, so a majority of the overpotential seen from this type of electrode is a result of Vc, the concentration overpotential.
The electrical characteristics of such an electrode show
electrodes, may thus interfere with the desired biosignals and result in undesired artefacts.
Both the half-cell potential and noise from the
electrodes, due to chemical activity taking place with in them, may be reduced by a proper choice of electrode material and by chloriding the silver electrode-called the Silver-Silver-Chloride (Ag-AgCl) electrode.
two pieces if pure silver (one of them the electrode) in a bromide-free sodium chloride solution (of %5 concentration) and connecting the two pieces to a DC voltage, the positive being connected to the electrode to be chlorided.
Chloride ions from the salt solution then combine with
the silver ions of the electrode and a thin film of chloride molecules is deposited on the silver electrode making it look grey.
Chloriding is best done in a dark room for a duration of about three minutes with a 3 volt battery.
sintering Process
The electrode consists of an Ag lead wire surrounded
by a sintered Ag/AgCl cylinder. It is formed by placing the cleaned lead wire in a die that is then filled with a mixture of powdered Ag and AgCl. The die is compressed in an arbor press to form the powdered components into a pellet, which is then removed from the die and baked at 400 0C for several hours. These electrodes tend to have a greater endurance than the electrolytically deposited AgCl electrodes, and they are best applied when repeated usage is necessary.
to flake off under mechanical stress, leaving portions of metallic Ag in contact with the electrolyte, which can cause the electrodes half-cell potential to be unstable and noisy.
calomel electrode
A second kind of electrode that has characteristics
approaching those of the perfectly nonpolarizable electrode is the calomel electrode. It is used primarily as a reference electrode for electrochemical determinations and is frequently applied as the reference electrode when pH is measured. The calomel electrode is often constructed as a glass tube with a porous glass plug at its base filled with a paste of mercurous chloride or calomel (Hg2Cl2) mixed with a saturated potassium chloride (KCl) solution.
the Hg2Cl2 layer of the inner tube is in contact with this electrolyte through the porous plug of the inner tube.
contact with an Hg2Cl2 layer that is in contact with the saturated KCl electrolyte.
The porous plug at the bottom of the electrode
assembly is used to make contact between the internal KCl solution and the solution in which the electrode is immersed.
This is actually a liquidliquid junction that can result
in a liquidliquid junction potential, which will add to the electrode half-cell potential.
electrodeelectrolyte interface are found to be nonlinear, and, in turn, nonlinear elements are required for modeling electrode behavior.
Specifically, the characteristics of an electrode are sensitive
to the current passing through the electrode, and the electrode characteristics at relatively high current densities can be considerably different from those at low current densities.
dependent.
When sinusoidal currents are used to measure the
distribution of ionic charge at the electrodeelectrolyte interface that had been considered a double layer of charge.
This, of course, should behave as a capacitorhence the capacitive
CIRCUIT MODELS
The series resistancecapacitance equivalent circuit
breaks down at the lower frequencies, where this model would suggest an impedance going to infinity as the frequency approaches dc.
To avoid this problem, we can convert this series RC
circuit to a parallel RC circuit that has a purely resistive impedance at very low frequencies.
representing the half-cell potential and a series resistance representing the interface effects and resistance of the electrolyte, we can arrive at the biopotential electrode equivalent circuit model shown
density dependent.
In this configuration it is also possible to assign
values determined by the electrode material and its geometry, andto a lesser extentby the material of the electrolyte and its concentration.
electrode impedance is frequency dependent. At high frequencies, where 1=wC<<Rd, the impedance is constant at Rs. At low frequencies, where 1=wC>>Rd, the impedance is again constant but its value is larger, being Rs + Rd. At frequencies between these extremes, the electrode impedance is frequency dependent.
The impedance of Ag/AgCl electrodes varies
significantly from that of a pure silver electrode at frequencies under 100 Hz.
Impedance as a function of frequency for Ag electrodes coated with an electrolytically deposited AgCl layer. The electrode area is 0.25 cm2. Numbers attached to curves indicate number of mAs for each deposit.