Kinetics of electrolytic hydrogen and deuterium evolution

The use of deuterium substitution for hydrogen in reactants as a means for elucidation of mechanisms of chemical reactions has been extensively employed in organic chemistry (Wiberg 1955; Roginsky 1956). A previous paper (Conway 1958) presented calculations of the isotopic ratio R of exchange currents (t0) in cathodic reactions evolving hydrogen and deuterium for limiting cases and showed that a characteristic dependence of R upon the rate-determining mechanism operative in the overall reaction could, under certain conditions, be expected.