During extensive investigations of the electrochemical reduction of oxygen on activated surface electrodes, the following results pertinent to the problem of the oxygen electrode were obtained : 1. A half‐cell was constructed in which gaseous molecular oxygen was in equilibrium with one of its ions. The electrode behaved in accordance with the thermodynamic predictions concerning the effect of changes in the activities of reactants and reaction products on the electromotive force. 2. The ion with which oxygen establishes a reversible equilibrium in alkaline solution was found to be HO 2 − . The measured electromotive force was found to be in agreement with the value calculated from thermodynamic data for the half‐cell reaction OH − + HO 2 − ⇌ O 2 + H 2 O + 2 e 3. The assumed cell reaction was verified by operating a cell containing the oxygen electrode in such a manner as to displace the equilibrium of the above reaction from right to left. This was done by connecting the oxygen electrode cathodically into either a galvanic cell or an electrolytic cell. Current efficiencies on the basis of the hydrogen peroxide yield in either instance were 100%.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Walter G. Berl (1943) studied this question.