These relationships agree reasonably well with the experimental results (Eq.[10] to [13]).As shown in Fig. 1, the abrupt change in the polarization of iron in low concentrations of chloride ions at the higher potentials suggest a change in the dissolution mechanism. It should be noted that at these higher potentials the dissolution rates are sufficiently large that the measured potential must be corrected for the IR potential drop. It is surmised that two dissolution mechanisms occur simultaneously. One involves the direct participation of the chloride ions in the dissolution of iron, and the second is independent of chloride ions. At low polarization the former mechanism is dominant, but at higher polarization a dissolution mechanism such as the one proposed by Bockris (17) maybe dominant.
ABSTRACTThe behavior of low index planes of copper single-crystal electrodes, simultaneously exposed to deaerated and pre-equilibrated acidic copper sulfate solution, has been studied. The surface topographies indicated that a small net dissolution reaction occurred, due to traces of oxygen present in the experimental system, in spite of all the purification steps applied. Potential differences between electrodes were within 1 mV. A low rate dissolution reaction occurred everywhere on the exposed surfaces of all specimens, but the extent of dissolution varied over the surface of the same specimen, indicating considerable heterogeneity of the metal crystal surfaces. The surface features formed during dissolution on all electrodes, like grooves, pyramidal pits, macro ledges, hillocks, etc., are consistently bounded by the {210}, {111}, and {100} planes. The application of Batterman's stability conditions indicates that these planes are slow dissolving and stable, under present experimental conditions. The crystallographic characteristics of these planes, in relation to the process of dissolution, are discussed. Mechanisms of formation of these surface features are proposed utilizing the terrace-ledge-kink model for metal crystal dissolution, and considering the effects of crystallographic structure, surface imperfections, and adsorbed inhibiting species on the step motion over the surface, for the given rate of dissolution.