Estudo da ativação da superfície de alumínio por íons de mercúrio e formação do amálgama Hg-Al: identificação do produto e cinética de reação

The activation of aluminum surface has the most various purposes as for example the search for the surface activation mechanism and the corrosion products by mercury ions. The objective of this work is to study the reactivity of the surface of aluminum metal when activated by mercury ions (Hg2+), with the consequent formation of an Al-Hg amalgam. Results demonstrate that the kinetics of the reaction, by measuring the mass change with time of the corrosion product formed between Al and Hg, and analysis by infrared spectroscopy (IR) that the product of the reaction between the amalgam, located on the surface, and the atmospheric oxygen is Al2O3 (aluminum hydroxide). The results also indicate that the kinetics of the reaction between the amalgam (Hg-Al) and atmospheric oxygen is of first order and reach a region where there is no more formation of product