Abstract
The electrochemical behavior of AgCu alloy (50 mass% Ag + 50 mass% Cu) has been investigated using cyclic voltammetry and the potentiostatic method in 0.1 mol/dm2 sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution containing Cl− ions in different concentrations. On the cyclic voltammograms recorded in 0.1 mol dm−3 NaOH solution in the absence of Cl− ions, six anodic current peaks can be noticed at the anodic part, while there are six cathodic and one additional anodic current peak at the cathodic part. In the presence of chloride ions with Cl− concentrations higher than 0.001 mol dm−3, an additional current peak appears ascribed to the formation of silver chloride (AgCl), while current waves of formed copper chlorides are very similar to the ones of copper oxides and can only be noticed by the change in the altitude of peaks. Linear dependence between current density peak and square root of the potential scan rate show that ongoing processes are under diffusion control. According to potentiostatic curves recorded on peak potentials, it has been concluded that with the increase of Cl− ion concentration in solution, the value of stationary curve density is growing unequally and results with the appearance of three regions with different slopes on the curve log j = f (log CCl−).
