Anodic oxide film formed on cobalt in sodium borate solution at pH=11.0 have been investigated by coulometry and potentiometry. The potential change during galvanostatic oxidation exhibits three plateaus before the potential reaches a steady state value for oxygen-evolution reaction. In the first plateau Co(OH)
2 is formed on cobalt. Further oxidation at constant current leads to a potential rise which accompanies the formation of CoO layer between the cobalt metal and the Co(OH)
2 film. In the second plateau a reaction of CoO·
nH
2O to Co
3O
4 occurs with a coulomb equivalent to the reaction. This Co
3O
4 film is oxidized to Co
2O
3·
mH
2O in the third plateau, the potential of which is 0.575V (she) not depending on the current densities and probably corresponds to the equilibrium potential of Co
3O
4/CoOOH. This change of Co
3O
4 to Co
2O
3·
mH
2O, however, does not complete during the potential arrest at the third plateau. From the galvanostatic-cathodic reduction of the films formed at constant potential and at constant current, the primary passive film formed in the potential range from -0.455V to +0.22V (she) is estimated to be CoO·
nH
2O, the secondary passive film in the range from +0.22V to +1.1V to, be mainly Co
3O
4, and the transpassive film at potentials more positive than 1.1V to be Co
3O
4 and Co
2O
3·
mH
2O. In the potential region of the secondary passivity (0.2V to 0.45V), both CoO·
nH
2O and Co
3O
4 are formed under potentiostatic conditions and the ratio in amount of Co
3O
4 to CoO·
nH
2O increases with rising potential. In this potential region, CoO·
nH
2O is first formed and then gradually changes to Co
3O
4 at constant potential.
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