Studies of the Reduction of Oxygen on Gold in Molten Li2 CO 3 ‐ K 2 CO 3 at 650°C

Abstract

Limiting currents obtained with rotating gold wire cathodes indicate that oxygen dissolves in Li, K carbonate melt predominantly as superoxide. The reduction of dissolved oxygen proceeds at polarizations only moderately larger than the diffusion overvoltage for the complete reduction of superoxide. The remaining polarization can be rationalized as mostly ionic concentration overvoltage. In some experiments, a second wave is observed which appears to be due to some cathodic process which does not involve oxygen.