Residual photocurrent at a mercury electrode

Abstract

The residual photocurrent observed at negative potentials with mercury in contact with slightly alkaline 1 M KCl solution has been reinvestigated and found to be caused partly by the reaction of e − aq with traces of unidentified electron acceptors and partly by reaction with the solvent. Such a solution can be freed from electron-accepting impurities by irradiation with light of shorter wavelength than 270 nm if SO 2− 3 is present at low concentration. The time constant for the homogeneous decay of e − aq at pH ca. 8.8 is then raised to about 400 μs. This slow decay is due to reaction with the solvent as the decay time constant can be increased considerably by raising the pH of the solution. In unsteady state experiments with purified 1 M KCl solutions of high pH containing no added scavenger for e − aq the current connected with electron emission and e − aq diffusion towards the electrode and the bulk of the solution, is cancelled out at ca. −1.4 V vs. SCE by a thermal non-faradaic current component when 360 nm light is employed. When CO 2 is present at high concentration a similar cancellation is observed at lower pH at ca. −1.1 V vs. SCE, suggesting a value for the diffusion coefficient of the radical-ion CO − 2 about 3.3 times smaller than that of e − aq.