Improved understanding of industrial electrode processes
In the industrial production of chlorine, special electrodes have been recently introduced, which consume much less current than conventional systems. The method requires oxygen to be introduced into a hot, highly concentrated sodium hydroxide solution in which it is poorly soluble. It is still unclear how industrial current densities can be achieved under these conditions. In collaboration with engineers from the Technical University of Clausthal, researchers from the Center for Electrochemical Sciences (CES) of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have gained new insight into the processes involving these types of electrodes, also referred to as oxygen-depolarised cathodes. The team including Alexander Botz, Denis Öhl and Prof Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann report on their results in the journal Angewandte Chemie, published online on 3 August 2018.