THE ELECTROGENERATION OF OXYGEN AT COPPER AND IRON ELECTRODES AND ITSINTERACTION WITH COTTON FABRIC

A study of the polarization of copper and mild steel electrodes in the absence and presence of cotton fabric in an alkaline environment has been carried out. In each case passive film formation on the metal sub strate is followed by the OER reaction. For those experiments in which the electrodes were in loose contact with the fabric, exhaustion of O H- ion in the solution between the metal substrate and the fabric resu lted in a decrease in the rate of the OER. This can be attributed to a change in mechanism from that in an alkaline to that in an acid envir onment. The interaction of the electrogenerated O2 with the cotton cel lulose leads to degradation of the latter; this is comparable to the ' 'catalytic damage'' observed during H2O2 bleaching of cellulose. The i ncreased damage observed to the fabric compared to when the O2 is gene rated on Pt supports the role of both Cu and Fe as catalysts for the O 2 cellulose reaction.