Abstract
Aluminium was incorporated into silver electrodes by underpotential deposition from an equimolar AlCl₃+NaCl melt at 200 °C, 250 °C and 300 °C. The process was studied by linear sweep voltammetry and potentiostatic deposition/galvanostatic stripping. The deposits were characterized by electron probe and glancing incidence X-ray diffraction. The electrochemical measurements showed clear evidence of formation of two intermetallic compounds. This was confirmed by the analysis, which showed two layers of successive bulk intermetallic compounds. The Gibbs energy of formation of the compounds is calculated and the kinetics of growth is described.

Key words
aluminium-silver alloys, underpotential deposition, diffusion, microscopy and microanalysis techniques, Gibbs energy of formation, kinetics

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