Numerical Simulation of the Effects of Experimental Error on the Higher Harmonic Components of Fourier Transformed AC Voltammograms

In this simulation study we investigate the effects of realistic levels of random and systematic experimental error in higher harmonics detected by Fourier transformed AC voltammetry for a reversible process. We show that by analyzing in the frequency domain results that are collected in the time domain, we can achieve a very large reduction in the magnitude of random (Gaussian) noise, and complete elimination of the systematic error introduced by mains frequency in both the small and large amplitude cases. As a consequence, we confirm experimental observations that even the eighth harmonic for a reversible process can be readily detected in the presence of very significant noise levels when 100 mV amplitude sine wave perturbations are employed.