An Electrochemical Theory for Oxygen Reboil

Oxygen reboil often occurs when glass is melted in air in platinum containers. Oxygen blisters develop even when well‐fined glass is remelted under similar conditions. Experiments show that this reboil is prevented or greatly reduced by: (1) Eliminating electron conductors from the system, (2) removing oxygen from the atmosphere over the melt, (3) applying an external bucking potential, (4) reversing concentration gradients, or (5) removing temperature gradients. These results suggest that oxygen reboil, which occurs at a platinum‐glass interface, results from the discharge of a concentration cell or a thermal cell. The proposed mechanism is: O2−→½ O2+ 2e− at the anode and ½ O2+ 2e−→ O2− at the cathode, with electron transport in the platinum and, to complete the circuit, alkali ions in the glass.