Dissolution of lead electrode and preparation of rod-shaped PbS crystals in a novel galvanic cell

摘要

A simple galvanic cell was developed to produce rod-shaped PbS crystals with lead and gold as negative and positive electrodes. The electrolyte solution contains sodium thiosulfate, sodium sulfate, and 1-thioglycerol (TG). It was found out that lead dissolved spontaneously and produced PbS crystals in the electrolyte solution immediately after assembling the cell. Further study shows that TG catalyzes the oxidation of lead into Pb2+ and the reduction of thiosulfate into S2−. The produced rod-shaped PbS crystals are 140∼350 nm in diameter and 1∼3 μm in length after 4 h of reaction.