Electrodeposition at an Ice-Coated Electrode

The use of a working electrode coated with a thin layer of frost-like ice has been investigated. It was found that copper can be continuously electrodeposited at such an electrode, and the resultant particulate deposit can be trapped in a growing ice layer. Electrochemical studies at low temperatures have been of inter-est for some years as a means of studying the mechanisms of electrode processes. Initially, such studies were conducted in the liquid phase using low freezing point solvents. Recently, electro-chemical studies in frozen electrolytes have been reported. Famil-iar electrochemical reactions such as redox processes and hydro-gen and oxygen evolution have been investigated in frozen electrolytes using standard electrochemical techniques (see Ref: 1, 2, and references cited therein). These studies are generally con-ducted in conventional three-electrode configurations in which the counter-, reference, and working electrodes are encased in the frozen electrolyte. In this paper we report the first use of a workin