A Comparison of Deaerating Gases for Electrochemical Tests

The incentive and justification for this study was to provide a safe means of deaerating solutions. Deaeration is desirable for many polarization and other electrochemical measurements because the removal of oxygen simplifies data analysis by eliminating an extraneous redox system.¹  Hydrogen gas is often favored for deaeration because in conjunction with a platinized platinum electrode, it provides a reversible hydrogen electrode with a stable, reproducible potential that serves as a check on the deaeration process. The well known dangers associated with the use of hydrogen gas can be minimized with proper precautions for containment and exhaustion, but the specialized equipment, ducts, and storage facilities for multiple installations can result in considerable expense, and do not entirely remove the danger of a hydrogen explosion. In this study, polarization curves obtained using argon and nitrogen gases for deaeration are compared with curves obtained using hydrogen gas.