Electrical response of a medium containing dissociable impurities.

The effect of the generation-recombination phenomenon on the electrical impedance of an electrolytic cell is investigated. We show that this phenomenon could be responsible for the appearance of a plateau in the real part of the impedance of the cell. The possibility to observe the plateau, arising from the generation-recombination phenomenon, is discussed in relation to the values of the association-dissociation coefficients. The analysis is done by assuming that the generation-recombination phenomenon can be described as a chemical reaction of first order, that the sample is in the shape of a slab, and that the electrodes of the cell are perfectly blocking. To simplify the analysis, the case where only one type of ions can move is considered. The extension of the results to the more general case, in which both types of ions are mobile, is also discussed.