Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance

Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) is the combination of electrochemistry and quartz crystal microbalance, which was generated in the eighties. Typically, an EQCM device contains an electrochemical cells part and a QCM part. Two electrodes on both sides of the quartz crystal serve two purposes. Firstly, an alternating electric field is generated between the two electrodes to make up the oscillator. Secondly, the electrode contacting electrolyte is used as a working electrode (WE), together with a counter electrode (CE) and a reference electrode (RE), in the potentiostatic circuit constituting the electrochemistry cell. Thus, the working electrode of electrochemistry cell is the sensor of QCM.

As a high mass sensitive in-situ measurement, EQCM is suitable to monitor the dynamic response of reactions at the electrode–solution interface at the applied potential. When the potential of a QCM metal electrode changes, a negative or positive mass change is monitored depending on the ratio of anions adoption on the electrode surface and the dissolution of metal ions into solution.