The Formation of Hydrogen Peroxide on Fresh Metal Surfaces

The recent discovery by Kramer that freshly exposea metal surfaces emit electrons is considered to be the cause of the Russell effect and of Shaw's mechanical activation. Electrons originating from the surface initiate reactions involving free radicals. With water, in the presence of oxygen, this leads to the formation of hydrogen peroxide. Metals were cut under water containing oxygen and it was found that, under similar conditions, zinc, aluminium, magnesium and nickel yield approximately the same quantity of H 2 O 2 . Iron gives ferric ions and copper only very little H 2 O 2 . During cutting, considerable quantities of hydroxides become suspended in the solution. With zinc more H 2 O 2 is formed per cut in the early stages of the experiment, owing to the exposure of fresh surface by the dissolution of Zn(OH) 2 . In the later stages each zinc atom exposed is responsible for the formation of approximately 1.5 molecules of H 2 O 2 . The decomposition of H 2 O 2 in the presence of chips of zinc is found to be a pseudo-unimolecular process. The cutting of copper in a solution of ferrous ions yielded ferric ions. The amount of ferric ions produced seems to depend on the quantity of oxygen available in the solution.