Kinetics and mechanism of gold dissolution in thiourea solutions: Effect of sulfide ions

Abstract

Chronoamperograms for gold in solutions containing 0.1 M thiourea, 0.5 M H₂SO₄, and catalytically active sulfide ions at the concentration c ₁ from 1 × 10⁻⁵ to 4 × 10⁻⁵ M are obtained at different potentials with the aid of an automated setup intended for renewing the electrode surface directly in the solution by cutting off a thin surface layer of the metal. It is shown that the results of measurements of the current practically coincide at a constant value of the product c ₁ t, where t is the time period elapsed after the renewal of the electrode surface. Such a coincidence testifies to a diffusion nature of processes that hamper accumulation of sulfide ions at the gold surface. This fact permitted the use of a procedure developed previously for the calculation of polarization curves at constant values of surface coverage θ by catalytically active ions. At θ = const, the voltammetric curves for gold in sulfide-containing thiourea solutions are shown to correspond to the Tafel equation. With the surface coverage increasing, the effective values of the exchange current i ₀, transfer coefficient α, and anodic reaction order with respect to thiourea P _a increase from the values i }~ 10⁻⁵ A cm⁻², α }~ 0.12, and P _a = 0.2, which are characteristic of pure solutions, to 2 × 10⁻⁴ A cm⁻², α }~ 0.5, and P _a = 1.1 (at θ }~ 0.5). An interpretation to the established regularities is given.