Oxygen Layers on Carbon

It was demonstrated by Frumkin and coworkers [100—105] that the adsorption of acids and bases depends strongly upon the amount of gases adsorbed on activated carbon and platinized carbon. Two different mechanisms are effective for the adsorption of anions in the presence of oxygen  

Although Momot, Bonnemay, Doniat, and Levart [109] demonstrated by gas adsorption (BET technique) and capacity measurements on porous carbon in alkaline electrolyte that the total surface area is much larger than the area accessible to electrolyte, they found a proportionality between the total area and the area in contact with electrolyte. If the proportionality constant is known, only one type of measurement yields the desired information on both areas. The increase of the capacitance with the concentration of KOH was interpreted as resulting from the adsorption of OH ions. 

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