Untitled

Abstract

New Phytol. 47, i '* The amount of electro-reducible substance reacting at the tiny dropping mercury cathode will be small, and the bulk concentration of the electolysed solution will not diminish appreciably with time. When a mercury drop breaks away from the capillary, it carries with it the reduced product, which may accumulate in the solution or in the mercury layer at the bottom of the electrolysis cell. If this layer is charged positively with respect to the deposition potential, and if the reduction reaction in question is reversible, the suhstance may re-enter the solution in the unreduced form.