The Adsorption of Hydroxyl ions to Silver Bromide and its Photographic Implications*

It is analytically shown that hydroxyl ions are adsorbed to a silver-bromide precipitate (silver body), the degree of the adsorption increasing with increasing pH. At the highest ph accessible to the analytical procedure (pH 9.5) roughly one OH-ion is adsorbed per 5 surface ion-sites. Although OH-ion adsorption to the bromide body could not be readily shown by the analytical procedure its existence is by no means excluded. The possible correlation between the postulated silver-hydroxyl surface complex and photographic sensitivity is briefly discussed and the hypothesis of a dual mechanism of latent image formation is reiterated.