Surface Reactions in High Electric Fields
Kinetics and Mechanism of Methanol Electrocatalysis
Pulsed Injection Flow Cell for Methanol Electrocatalysis
Ionization of Water in High Electric Fields
The presence of high electric fields, on the order of 0.2-0.5 V/Å, has a profound effect on water. The electric field promotes ionization, increasing the ionic strength by a significant amount. We don't know much this increase is, but believe it to be several orders of magnitude. That is, the autoprotolysis consant of liquid water at room temperature (pKw = 14) would reduce substantially (pKw = 12? = 10?) in the presence of a high electric field. This talk describes ionization of water in high electric fields. The work was all done at low temperature (below 170 K), yet it shows how easily hydrated protons form in the presence of an electric field. The talk was originally give at the Gordon Research Conference on Electroanalytical Chemistry two years ago and has been presented in various forms since then. It includes some interesting field-ionization videos that show hydrated protons being formed on the Pt field emitter tip.
To see the videos download the pdf file (fi_water.pdf) and the four avi files. The video files must be in the same folder as the pdf file. The videos require the Indeo 5 codec (see here). They should play on Intel/Windows machines, but I have not checked it. They will play on Macs but only in OS 9.x. To do this you will need QuickTime Pro and the Indeo 5 codec. Since Indeo 5 does not work in MacOS X, the videos will not work with MacOS X nor in Classic mode.
Field Ionization of Water Talk (2.8 MB)
Video 1 (2.4 MB)
Video 2 (3.2 MB)
Video 3 (2.2 MB)
Video 4 (3.5 MB)
05/08/03 v 2.0.0