boride

Updated: May 25, 2025

On the same principle that electro-dissolution is used for the estimation of combined carbon in steel, etc., I have lately varied the experiment by introducing, instead of steel, iron containing a certain percentage of boron, and, having connected the respective boride with the positive pole of a powerful battery, and to the negative a plate of platinum, using as a solvent dilute sulphuric acid, I observed, after the lapse of about twelve hours, the iron had entirely passed into solution, and a considerable amount of brownish precipitate had collected at the bottom of the vessel, intercepted by flakes of graphite and carbon; the precipitate, having been collected on a filter paper, washed, and dried, on examination proved to be amorphous boron, containing graphite and other impurities, which had become chemically introduced during the preparation of the boron compound.

Various - Scientific American Supplement, No. 586, March 26, 1887