Why Silver Deposition is so Fast: Solving the Enigma of Metal Deposition

LEANDRO PINTO; ECKHARD SPOHR; PAOLA QUAINO; ELIZABETH SANTOS; WOLFGANG SCHMICKLER

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH& Co. KGaA

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2013 vol. 52 p. 1 - 4

1521-3773

The central question of our investigation was: Why issilver deposition so fast, even though the ion loses more than5 eV of solvation energy in the process? The explanation liesin the combination of two effects: 1) Like several otherunivalent metal ions, the Ag+ ion can get very close to theelectrode surface without losing solvation energy. There iseven a minimum in the potential of mean force when the ion isin a position very close to the surface, where it has a firmsolvation shell stabilized by the electrode surface. In thisposition, the ion is close enough to the surface to experiencethe electronic interaction with the silver electrode; 2) Theinteraction of the silver 5s orbital with the sp band of silver isvery strong and long-range.