CHAPTER V - ELECTROLYTIC POLARIZATION

Summary

264.] When an electric current is passed through an electrolyte bounded by metal electrodes, the accumulation of the ions at the electrodes produces the phenomenon called Polarization, which consists in an electromotive force acting in the opposite direction to the current, and producing an apparent increase of the resistance.

When a continuous current is employed, the resistance appears to increase rapidly from the commencement of the current, and at last reaches a value nearly constant. If the form of the vessel in which the electrolyte is contained is changed, the resistance is altered in the same way as a similar change of form of a metallic conductor would alter its resistance, but an additional apparent resistance, depending on the nature of the electrodes, has always to be added to the true resistance of the electrolyte.

265.] These phenomena have led some to suppose that there is a finite electromotive force required for a current to pass through an electrolyte. It has been shewn, however, by the researches of Lenz, Neumann, Beetz, Wiedemann, Paalzow, and recently by those of MM. F. Kohlrausch and W. A. Nippoldt, that the conduction in the electrolyte itself obeys Ohm's Law with the same precision as in metallic conductors, and that the apparent resistance at the bounding surface of the electrolyte and the electrodes is entirely due to polarization.

266.] The phenomenon called polarization manifests itself in the case of a continuous current by a diminution in the current, indicating a force opposed to the current.