Deciphering lead and cadmium stripping peaks for porous antimony deposited electrodes

Cadmium and lead are generally taken as model heavy metal ions in water to scale the detection limit of various electrode sensors, using electrochemical sensing techniques. These ions interact with the electrochemically deposited antimony electrodes depending on the diffusion limitations. The phenomenon acts differently for the in-situ and ex-situ deposition as well as for porous and non-porous electrodes. A method has been adopted in this study to discourage the stripping and deposition of the working ions (antimony) to understand the principle of heavy metal ion detection. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique was used to establish the interaction between the working and dissolved ions. In addition to the distinct peaks for each analyte, researchers also observed a shoulder peak. A possible reason for the presence of this peak was provided. Different electrochemical tests were performed to ascertain the theory on the basis of the experimental observations.