Exaltation effects in the metal electrodeposition from acid electrolytes

Abstract

The exaltation of mass transfer of discharging cations, caused by the concurrent hydrogen evolution from acidified solutions, results in a sharp increase in the metal deposition rate. In this case the limiting process rate depends linearly on the hydrogen evolution current density; it depends but weakly on the solution agitation and temperature. Under the electrolysis of solutions containing weak acids as a supporting electrolyte, the higher the acid formation constant, the more pronounced is the dependence of the electrodeposition limiting rate on the hydrogen current density. When microelectrodes are used, the varying of the background acid nature may affect the hydrogen evolution rate markedly, while the metal electrodeposition rate mainly depends on the cell voltage. When metals are electrodeposited from complex anions, the parallel hydrogen evolution hinders the mass transfer; this process depends on the anion stability constant and charge, all other conditions being the same. The found peculiarities can be used in the inversion voltammetry for the lowering of the metal detection limit, improving of the analysis selectivity, and time saving.