Rudolf N. Kuklin

A.N. Frumkin Institute of electrochemistry, RAS, 117071, Moscow, Russia.
[email protected]

Received: 29 June 2003 / Accepted: 12 January 2004 / Published: 27 January 2004

Abstract: The thermodynamic stability limits of specific adsorption at the polarized liquid metal/ electrolyte solution interface are studied. Here the reversible starting and disappearance of the electroadsorption effects at a threshold potential are revealed, which are the result of Gibbs stability violation. The stability limits are determined by the bifurcation manifold of the critical states for which determinant of matrix of a second differential of the surface pressure equals zero. The equations of the critical states are equivalent to the spinodal equations used in the theory of phase transitions. The conception developed beneath will help provide to interpretate the anomalies of electrocapillary effects through the catastrophe theory.

Keywords: electro-adsorption stability limits; catastrophe at the polarized interfaces.