Kinetics of Cu2O electrocrystallization under magnetic fields

✍ Scribed by Anne-Lise Daltin; Frédéric Bohr; Jean-Paul Chopart

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 453 KB
• Volume: 54
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-4686
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2009.05.036

✦ Synopsis

The magnetic field effects on cuprous oxide cathodic electrodeposition from alkaline cupric lactate solution have been investigated at 70 • C by electrochemical and physical techniques.

Stationary analyses exhibit a tenuous decrease of the plateau electrolytic current as the magnetic field increases. Due to the limited diffusion process of the hydroxide species which reacts during the electrochemical process, a magnetically induced effect can be suspected but deposition of Cu 2 O that covers the electrode and "passivates" the surface leads to antagonist effects that explain the current decrease.

For a cathodic applied potential corresponding to the current plateau, X-ray diffraction studies reveal the formation of single phase cubic Cu 2 O films with or without magnetic field, but a change in electrocrystallization kinetics of Cu 2 O is observed in the presence of the magnetic field. Analyses of the transient current curves reveal a convective effect of the magnetic field from the very first moments of the electrocrystallization.