A COMPARISON OF QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS USED TO DEFINE THE RESOLUTION OF 2 OVERLAPPING REVERSIBLE PROCESSES IN 2ND AND FUNDAMENTAL HARMONIC ALTERNATING-CURRENT VOLTAMMETRY

Different authors have reached different conclusions concerning the re lative resolving power of the fundamental and second harmonic alternat ing current voltammetric (polarographic) techniques. In this paper, th e different qualitative and quantitative methods used to define the re solution of two overlapping processes in alternating current voltammet ry have been evaluated. With all qualitative definitions, resolution o f the second harmonic method is confirmed to be marginally superior to the fundamental harmonic. However, quantitatively, the resolution ach ieved with either method is so similar that the relative order to reso lving power reported has actually been determined by the definition of resolution used and subtle differences in the examples chosen to eval uate the resolution. Experimental data confirm that the similarities i n the qualitative aspects of resolution are far more substantial than the differences.