Electrode Polishing Kit

SKU: AKPOLISH Category: Tag:

This kit contains a set of polishing disks and alumina slurries which are useful for repolishing Pine Research electrodes.

The kit contains the following items:

  • Polishing guide
  • Alumina slurries (0.05 µm, 0.3 µm, and 5 µm suspensions)
  • Polishing pads (microcloth and nylon)
  • Abrasive grinding disks for rough repolishing

See “Description” tab below for additional information.

A toolkit is also needed for polishing of disk inserts when using ChangeDisk RDE/RRDE tips.  See table below for appropriate toolkit related to each type of ChangeDisk electrode.

PTFE-shrouded electrodes are generally easy to polish manually, but PEEK shrouded electrodes usually require a mechanical polishing wheel.

Description

Routine, daily polishing of a precision electrode surface is normally accomplished using a slurry of sub-micron alumina particles.  The slurry is deposited on a special microcloth and then the electrode is pressed into the slurry and carefully polished against the alumina particles.

At the end of a series of tests, the surface of an electrode should normally be polished using an ultrafine slurry of 0.05 µm alumina particles.  This slurry is usually sufficient for preparing the electrode surface for the next set of tests.

In the event that a slightly more aggressive resurfacing is required (i.e., if a thin film has fouled the electrode surface), then a fine slurry of 0.3 µm alumina particles can be used first to remove the film.  Then, after the film is removed, the surface can be polished with the ultrafine 0.05 µm alumina slurry.

A far less frequent “coarse polishing” of the electrode surface involves larger alumina particles (5 µm) and should only be performed if the electrode has a alertable scratch or has been fouled with a thick layer of unwanted material.

Pine Research offers a 5 µm alumina slurry that is normally used in conjunction with a hard nylon polishing cloth.

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