| dc.description.abstract | It has been known for many years that evolution of hydrogen occurs, in addition to the dissolution of magnesium, during the anodic oxidation of magnesium in aqueous salt solutions (1). Thia behavior is obviously extraordinary, since the primary electrochemical action at the anode is one of oxidation, and hydrogen must be produced from the water by reduction. Those facts indicate either that a· non-electrolytic reaction occurs simultaneously with electrolysis, or that an unstable intermediate, which is capable of undergoing further oxidation, is formed during the anodic electrolytic reaction. Turrentine (2) assumed the latter of these• alternatives to be the correct one, and suggested that unipositive magnesium was formed as the unstable intermediate. The evidence for the validity of this assumption, however, is not conclusive. The present work was undertaken to characterize the anodic behavior of magnesium in aqueous salt solutions. Experiments were carried out to distinguish between the two alternatives presented above. The results of these experiments leave little doubt that during the anodic oxidation of magnesium at least some of the metal is converted to the unipositive state. | en_US |
