Effect of halides and alkali cations on the Zn(Hg)/Zn(II) electrode reactions

The title subject has been studied by galvanostatic single-pulse, chronopotentiometric and equilibrium measurements on the Zn(Hg)/Zn(II) electrode in x M KI+(1?x) M KCl (x from 0 to 1), 1 M KBr and 1 M MeCl (Me=Li, Na, K and Cs) solutions of pH 3 at 25°C. Quantitative information about the effect of specifically adsorbed halides on the rates of the Zn(II)/Zn(I) and the Zn(I)/Zn(Hg) steps is obtained separately (for the latter step mainly at potentials near ?1.0 V(SCE)), and the latter step seems to be more influenced than the former by the adsorption. An attempt is made to correlate the adsorption effect on the rate of the Zn(II)/Zn(I) step to double-layer parameters according to recent models for such effects. The extra current observed at potentials where the halides are adsorbed, seems to vary with the surface activity of the specifically adsorbed ion. The lack of any observed kinetic effect of Cs⁺, which is specifically adsorbed at these potentials, is possibly due to the Cs⁺ specific adsorption enhancing the Cl^? specific adsorption and vice versa, so that the decelerating and accelerating effects by these ions may cancel each other.