Reduction of Oxygen on Silver Electrodes in Ternary Alkali Carbonate Eutectic Melt

Tyurikov et a l. ( I) have described results ob- 2. tained for reduction of oxygen on various substrates in a number of carbonate melts. They show that on smooth s i lver electrodes currents were greater than those on gold. Un-less the i r observation can be explained by geometric factors, this result is inconsistent with the supposition of an essential ly d i f fu- 3. sion-control led mechanism involving in i t ia l chemical formation of peroxide and superoxide ions from 02.and C03 =, as described in pre-vious work (2,3). Accordingly, a study of oxygen reduction on immersed s i lver electrode, with a polished 0.5 cm2 surface was conducted. Apparatu