Quantitative in-situ determination of iron in a soda-lime-silica glass melt with the aid of square-wave voltammetry

Abstract

Square-wave voltammetric measurements are fairly convenient to determine thermodynamic data and diffusion coefficients o f polyvalent elements in glass melts. In principle, these methods also allow the quantitative in-situ determination of the total concentrations of polyvalent ions. For the in-situ determination of small quantities, however, improvements of the measuring and analyzing procedures were necessary This was achieved by approximating background currents using polynoms and describing Faradaic currents using theoretically derived equations. Simulations using least Square approximations then allow a much more detailed analysis of the current potential curve. Further improvements were possible by preelectrolyzing the melt at negative potentials and then shifting the potential to zero while recording the square-wave voltammogram. Using both procedures, a quantitative determination of iron concentrations as low a s 0.004 mol% Fe₂O₃ is possible.