Abstract
Electropolishing in molten salts. I have found that gold, platinum and palladium may be anodically polished using pure (‘Analar’) molten potassium chloride or sodium chloride as electrolyte. With palladium electrodes of about 1 cm.2 area and 2 cm. apart at about 950° C., etching occurred at low current-density, but gave place to polishing at about 1 amp./cm.2 (calculated on the inner faces only) and 3 volts potential difference. For gold at 970° C. and platinum at 1,020° C, using a 3-cm. diameter nickel crucible as cathode, there appeared to be no clearly defined lower limit to the polishing conditions, but polishing was observed at and above 0.15 amp./cm. and a potential difference of 1.5 volts. Palladium was also polished in an enclosed system with hydrogen bubbling vigorously through the electrolyte around the anode.
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ROWLAND, P. Mechanism of Electropolishing. Nature 171, 931 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/171931a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/171931a0
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