On a variation of the Tikhonov regularization method for calculating the distribution function of relaxation times in impedance spectroscopy

In a recent paper of Zhang et al. (2016) a variation of the Tikhonov regularization method for calculating the distribution of relaxation times (DRT) in relation to analysis of the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data has been proposed. The novelty of the proposed method is that it is free from the regularization parameter, the adjusting of which usually causes the main issue when applying the Tikhonov regularization method. In the present paper, we investigate by means of numerical experiments the frequency resolution of the method by Zhang et al. and its robustness to resist noise embedded in the impedance spectra. In doing so, we also consider how changing certain matrices used in the method affects the results. In addition, the DRT function calculation for a real electrochemical object by means of this new approach is shown. •The ability of the new method to resolve overlapping relaxation processes is studied.•The results depend on intrinsic parameters of the method implementation.•The method potentially has a higher robustness to resist noise in EIS.