Interfacial studies on high temperature systems

Hall, Stephen M (1979) Interfacial studies on high temperature systems. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

The first part of this work involves a study of the electrolytic decomposition of molten KSCN and molten LiCl-KC1 eutectic on vitreous carbon using potentiodynamic techniques. The electrolytic decomposition of KSCN melt is complex, and a reaction scheme is proposed to account for the observed behaviour. The salts were then used as a medium in which to study the physical and electrochemical nature of the interface between molten sulphur and vitreous carton. An abrupt change in the contact angle between liquid sulphur and vitreous carbon was observed on cathodic polarisation of the carbon surface in each medium. This change was recorded using microcine photography. Several possible explanations are proposed to account for this phenomenon, and double-layer capacity and interfacial tension experiments were performed to differentiate between the possibilities. The phenomenon was found to result from electrochemical reduction of sulphur, and a reaction mechanism for this reduction is proposed on the basis of evidence obtained from linear potential sweep experiments.The second part of this work involves a study of electrokinetic phenomena at molten salt/ceramic interfaces. A critical review of previous work is presented. A novel method of treating the experimental results from such measurements is proposed, and applied to the observed experimental data. The results indicate that Pb 2+ ions are adsorbed at the interface between molten PbBr2 and Pyrex and that N03 ions are adsorbed at the interface between molten NaN03and Pyrex.

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