Simultaneous Measurement of Adsorption and Electrodekinetic Parameters at Metal Surfaces

Abstract

A RECENT communication by Blomgren and Bockris¹ described a radiochemical technique for the measurement of adsorption on metal surfaces, the metal being deposited on the mica window of a gas proportional counter. The metallized window serves as an electrode at which adsorption and the usual electrodekinetic parameters may be measured simultaneously. An obvious disadvantage of the above method, the introduction of a counter into an electrolytic cell, has been avoided by a technique developed in this Laboratory for the study of the poisoning by antimony of the hydrogen evolution reaction on nickel. The method employs radioactive adsorbates in conjunction with the ‘transparent-cathode’ technique of Joliot². The latter required modification in detail but not in principle.