Cathodic polarization of solid tellurium in molten sodium polysulfide

The authors studied the cathodic polarization of tellurium in molten sodium polysulfide close to Na/sub 2/S/sub 3/ in its composition. They used a galvanostatic pulse technique where square current pulses of increasing amplitude were applied to the electrode at certain time intervals and the potential was recorded at the points where the current was turned off. The potentials were measured relative to a sodium reference electrode. Tellurium of TA-1 grade was used in the experiments. The experiments were conducted under argon at a temperature of 523/sup 0/K. All the observations reported indicate that sodium ions are involved in the alloy formation processes during cathodic polarization of tellurium in molten sodium polysulfide.