X-ray investigations of the metal deposits resulting from the electrochemical displacement process

The principle of electrochemical displacement has been well established in the science of chemistry and applied as a commercial process in some metallurgical processes, such as the cementation process and the immersion method of metal coatings. According to the EMF series of the metals, the upper, the more electronegative metal,* (*Here the term of \u27electronegative\u27 means the metal possessing high electrolytic solution pressure and going into the solution with the formation of positive ions. Some authors preferred to use \u27electropositive\u27 instead of \u27electronegative\u27, referring to the ions which are electropositive during dissolution.) will displace the lower, the more electropositive one, out of the solution. Is the displaced product a pure metal? Fifty years ago, Mylius and Fromm, by means of chemical methods, showed that the displaced products were contaminated with the base metal and imagined that they were in an alloyed state...But Mylius and Fromm could not say in what form the electronegative metal occurs in the deposit; whether it is absorbed or dissolved by the deposit or accumulated in separate places, or what the structure of the deposit is. The answer can be obtained by examination of the deposits by X-ray --Introduction, page 1-2