Document Type

Article

Subject Area(s)

Chemical Engineering

Abstract

Electrolysis of hydrogen sulfide to its constituents in a solution containing equimolar concentrations of NaOH and NaHS has been carried out at 80°C. In a double-compartment cell employing Nafion membrane as a separator, both crystalline elemental sulfur and high-purity hydrogen have been produced at high current efficiencies. Only minimal, if any, passivation of the anode by sulfur product was observed. According to solution composition, electrolysis could result in gas evolution at the anode, passivation of the anode by sulfur deposition, or oxidation of sulfide (S2–) or polysulfide (S) to sulfur oxyanions. However, in an optimized solution, electrolysis gave only anodic sulfur via bisulfide (HS–) and sulfide oxidation. Voltammetric and chronopotentiometric studies showed that sulfide, bisulfide, and polysulfide oxidation occurred at about the same potential.

Rights

© The Electrochemical Society, Inc. 1990. All rights reserved. Except as provided under U.S. copyright law, this work may not be reproduced, resold, distributed, or modified without the express permission of The Electrochemical Society (ECS). The archival version of this work was published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society.

http://www.electrochem.org/

DOI: 10.1149/1.2087021

http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/1.2087021

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