Speaker
Description
Studying electric field effects on biological systems, from DC to high AC frequencies, can be confounded by the coexistence charge transfer (CT) reactions. CT redox processes can alter the chemical environment of the biological system being studied. Notable CT reaction effects are: oxygen depletion, pH changes, reactive oxygen species formation, reactive chlorine formation, and electrode corrosion reactions resulting in metal ion release. This tutorial aims to be a practical primer that will overview the common CT reaction types and how to recognize and quantify them. I will cover how CT is affected by frequency/pulse length and by the electrode type. On one hand, I will discuss CT mitigation strategies, on the other hand I will provide some cases where CT can be useful in certain experiments. The notable example is using CT reactions to control oxygen gradients, creating anoxic/hypoxic regions or hyperoxic regions. This concept can be carried further to control reactive oxygen species concentrations. The goal is to provide a better understanding of fundamental electrochemistry in the context of biophysical experiments
