Impedance Spectroscopy
Neelam Yadav and Ravindra Dhar
Abstract Impedance spectroscopy (IS) is a powerful technique used for characterizing the electrical properties of systems in which the overall behavior is determined
by several strongly coupled processes. Impedance studies have become popular since
high quality impedance bridges and automated measuring devices covering wide
range of frequencies from mHz to few MHz are easily available. Thus, material
scientists, engineers, electrochemists are fascinated to understand the theoretical
background of these studies and gain skills in interpreting impedance data. In IS,
the linear electrical response of materials including electrode effects are measured
and subsequently the response is analyzed to obtain valuable information about the
physiochemical features of the system. The analysis is performed in the frequency
domain or in time domain. In time domain, the measurements are converted into
frequency domain by Fourier transform. IS not only measures data at the impedance
(Z) level but can include admittance (Y ), complex dielectric constant (ε) or its inverse
i.e. complex modulus (M). It plots these functions in the complex plane.
Keywords Impedance · Complex dielectric constant · Permittivity · Cole-Cole
plot · Nyquist plots
1 Introduction
IS can be broadly classified into electrochemical IS (EIS) and everything else [1]. The
first category is EIS which deals with the measurements and analysis of materials
such as solid and liquid electrolytes, nonstoichiometric ionic crystals, fused salts
that show strong dominance of ionic conduction. The other category of IS involves
dielectric materials in which electronic conduction predominates and their electrical
properties include rotation of dipoles. Amorphous semiconductors, polymers and
glasses are examples of such kind of materials. It is worth mentioning that IS can
N. Yadav · R. Dhar (B)
Centre of Material Sciences, University of Allahabad, Allahabad (Prayagraj) 211002, Uttar
Pradesh, India
e-mail: rdhar@allduniv.ac.in; dr_ravindra_dhar@hotmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
D. K. Singh et al. (eds.), Modern Techniques of Spectroscopy, Progress in Optical Science
and Photonics 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6084-6_19
515
Neelam Yadav and Ravindra Dhar
Abstract Impedance spectroscopy (IS) is a powerful technique used for characterizing the electrical properties of systems in which the overall behavior is determined
by several strongly coupled processes. Impedance studies have become popular since
high quality impedance bridges and automated measuring devices covering wide
range of frequencies from mHz to few MHz are easily available. Thus, material
scientists, engineers, electrochemists are fascinated to understand the theoretical
background of these studies and gain skills in interpreting impedance data. In IS,
the linear electrical response of materials including electrode effects are measured
and subsequently the response is analyzed to obtain valuable information about the
physiochemical features of the system. The analysis is performed in the frequency
domain or in time domain. In time domain, the measurements are converted into
frequency domain by Fourier transform. IS not only measures data at the impedance
(Z) level but can include admittance (Y ), complex dielectric constant (ε) or its inverse
i.e. complex modulus (M). It plots these functions in the complex plane.
Keywords Impedance · Complex dielectric constant · Permittivity · Cole-Cole
plot · Nyquist plots
1 Introduction
IS can be broadly classified into electrochemical IS (EIS) and everything else [1]. The
first category is EIS which deals with the measurements and analysis of materials
such as solid and liquid electrolytes, nonstoichiometric ionic crystals, fused salts
that show strong dominance of ionic conduction. The other category of IS involves
dielectric materials in which electronic conduction predominates and their electrical
properties include rotation of dipoles. Amorphous semiconductors, polymers and
glasses are examples of such kind of materials. It is worth mentioning that IS can
N. Yadav · R. Dhar (B)
Centre of Material Sciences, University of Allahabad, Allahabad (Prayagraj) 211002, Uttar
Pradesh, India
e-mail: rdhar@allduniv.ac.in; dr_ravindra_dhar@hotmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
D. K. Singh et al. (eds.), Modern Techniques of Spectroscopy, Progress in Optical Science
and Photonics 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6084-6_19
515