Reply to Doremus

Abstract

DOREMUS implies that the hydroxyl ion diffusion which I observed¹ was in fact the result of the movement of monovalent cations, present as impurity ions in quartz. If this was so I was monitoring self-diffusion currents because I employed a platinum anode which was neither a source of alkali nor of hydrogen ions. The conductivity for a self-diffusion current decreases exponentially with time² whereas for an ionic current the conductivity^3,4 increases to a maximum constant value and therefore the one can be readily distinguished from the other. The currents I observed were of the latter type and the diffusing ions must have originated in the cathode. I used three different minerals, goethite, talc and kaolinite as cathodic sources of hydroxyl ions and observed a similar OH absorption band in the near infrared spectra of the quartz; I obtained a similar activation energy with each source. I did not detect an OH absorption band after self-diffusion experiments although this has been observed by others using a more sensitive infrared technique⁵.