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Electrochemical dissolution of aluminium in electrocoagulation experiments

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Abstract

Six experiments are presented to highlight important features of aluminium dissolution when used in electrocoagulation procedure employed to remove oily contaminations from water. First, using a common oil-in-water emulsion: diluted milk, we show that the electrochemically generated coagulant ions are active only in the first few seconds following their generation—hence, the electrocoagulation cells’ construction should promote the mixing of the nascent Al colloid with the water phase. For this reason, the use of the narrow-gap cells is suggested. Second, in experiments with Al-Al electrode pairs and dilute, neutral, unbuffered, aqueous solutions we (i) estimate the maximum amount of Al dissolution on the cathode and (ii) show how the rate of Al dissolution changes with frequency if the cell voltage polarity is alternating.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support of the National Research, Technology and Innovation Office of the Hungarian government through projects KMR_12-1-2012-0386 and OTKA-K-112034 is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, Budapest, H-1117, Hungary

    Éva Fekete, Béla Lengyel, Tamás Cserfalvi & Tamás Pajkossy

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  1. Éva Fekete
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  2. Béla Lengyel
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  3. Tamás Cserfalvi
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  4. Tamás Pajkossy
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Correspondence to Tamás Pajkossy.

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Fekete, É., Lengyel, B., Cserfalvi, T. et al. Electrochemical dissolution of aluminium in electrocoagulation experiments. J Solid State Electrochem 20, 3107–3114 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3195-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3195-6

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