Thermal reactions of inorganic hydroxy-compounds under applied electric fields,II

The effect of electric fields on the thermal dehydroxylation of Mg(OH)₂ (brucite) and Al(OH)₃ (gibbsite) have been studied by thermogravimetry in a controlled inert atmosphere. Electric fields exert no beneficial effect on the reaction of gibbsite; in some cases the reaction is slightly retarded. By contrast, a small but significant beneficial effect is observed in brucite, in which the initiation temperature and activation energy is lowered at field strengths of about 10⁵ V/m. The difference in behaviour of the two hydroxides is attributed to differences in the mobility of anionic defects and oxygen-containing “proton-transfer complexes”. The transport of the various protonbearing species in an electric field is discussed.