Polarography

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A technique used in analytical chemistry for evaluating electrochemical properties by measuring current as a function of voltage in a solution
2. A method in electrochemistry that involves the measurement of the electric current produced as a chemical reaction occurs at an electrode, used to analyze ionic species
3. An analytical process where the behavior of different substances is examined through voltage variations, helping in the determination of concentrations in solutions

Etymology: Polarography is a compound of "polar" and the Greek-derived suffix "-graphy," meaning "writing" or "recording." The name describes the method itself: an electrochemical measurement that records a current as the voltage applied across a solution is steadily changed. The technique was developed by the Czech chemist Jaroslav Heyrovský, who devised it in the 1920s, and the instrument he built for it, the polarograph, produced the characteristic curves that gave the method its name. The "polar" element refers to the polarized electrode, the surface whose electrical state changes as voltage is applied. Heyrovský's work earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1959, the only Nobel awarded for this type of electrochemical analysis. The "-graphy" ending follows the same pattern as older scientific coinages such as "photography" and "radiography," where a suffix meaning "recording" was attached to a root describing the phenomenon being captured.