Aniline anodic processes

Nitrogenous organic components such as toluidine, quinoline, aniline, etc. all act as inhibitors to the anodic reaction between metal and acid and thereby favour the cathodic reaction and accelerate the process. 

Participation in the electrode reactions The electrode reactions of corrosion involve the formation of adsorbed intermediate species with surface metal atoms, e.g. adsorbed hydrogen atoms in the hydrogen evolution reaction adsorbed (FeOH) in the anodic dissolution of iron . The presence of adsorbed inhibitors will interfere with the formation of these adsorbed intermediates, but the electrode processes may then proceed by alternative paths through intermediates containing the inhibitor. In these processes the inhibitor species act in a catalytic manner and remain unchanged. Such participation by the inhibitor is generally characterised by a change in the Tafel slope observed for the process. Studies of the anodic dissolution of iron in the presence of some inhibitors, e.g. halide ions , aniline and its derivatives , the benzoate ion and the furoate ion , have indicated that the adsorbed inhibitor I participates in the reaction, probably in the form of a complex of the type (Fe-/), or (Fe-OH-/), . The dissolution reaction proceeds less readily via the adsorbed inhibitor complexes than via (Fe-OH),js, and so anodic dissolution is inhibited and an increase in Tafel slope is observed for the reaction. 

Many anodic oxidations involve an ECE pathway. For example, the neurotransmitter epinephrine can be oxidized to its quinone, which proceeds via cyclization to leukoadrenochrome. The latter can rapidly undergo electron transfer to form adrenochrome (5). The electrochemical oxidation of aniline is another classical example of an ECE pathway (6). The cation radical thus formed rapidly undergoes a dimerization reaction to yield an easily oxidized p-aminodiphenylamine product. Another example (of industrial relevance) is the reductive coupling of activated olefins to yield a radical anion, which reacts with the parent olefin to give a reducible dimer (7). If the chemical step is very fast (in comparison to the electron-transfer process), the system will behave as an EE mechanism (of two successive charge-transfer steps). Table 2-1 summarizes common electrochemical mechanisms involving coupled chemical reactions. Powerful cyclic voltammetric computational simulators, exploring the behavior of virtually any user-specific mechanism, have... 

Electrochemistry is one of the most promising areas in the research of conducting polymers. Thus, the method of choice for preparing conducting polymers, with the exception of PA, is the anodic oxidation of suitable monomeric species such as pyrrole [3], thiophene [4], or aniline [5]. Several aspects of electrosynthesis are of relevance for electrochemists. First, there is the deposition process of the polymers at the electrode surface, which involves nucleation-and-growth steps [6]. Second, to analyze these phenomena correctly, one has to know the mechanism of electropolymerization [7, 8]. And thirdly, there is the problem of the optimization of the mechanical, electrical, and optical material properties produced by the special parameters of electropolymerization. 

PANI is usually produced by the anodic oxidation of aniline in acidic aqueous solution [5, 139], but can also be produced by chemical oxidation [138b, 140]. Hence, it is not surprising that the oxidation of PANI is pH-dependent and that, therefore, in addition to electron-transfer processes, proton-transfer reactions occur during charging. Although it is usually assumed that PANI has a chain structure (emeraldine) with head-tail connections... 

For many processes, how ever, it is necessary to employ a divided cell in which the anode and cathode compartments are separated by a barrier, allowing the diffusion of ions but hindering transfer of reactants and products between compartments. This prevents undesirable side reactions. Good examples of the need for a divided cell are seen in the reduction of nitjobenzenes to phenylhydroxylamines (p. 379) or to anilines (p. 376). In these ca.scs the reduction products are susceptible to oxidation and must be prevented from approaching the anode. The cell compartments can be divided with a porous separator constructed from sintered glass, porous porcelain or a sintered inert polymer such as polypropene or polytetra-... 

Anodic oxidation of phenylamines is irreversible and involves the loss of two electrons and a proton to give a delocalised carbonium ion, which reacts further. Oxidation of 2,4-dimethyl-aniline to give 51 illustrates the process [161]. Interae-... 

Vanadium2 compounds may be employed as catalysts in oxidation, and reduction processes. Por example, anthracene is oxidised to anthraquinone with a lead anode in 20 per cent, sulphuric acid which contains 3 per cent, of vanadic acid. Aniline under similar conditions may be oxidised to benzoquinone, and the latter substance can be efficiently reduced to hydroquinone. Azobenzene and azoxybenzene are stated to give a good yield of benzidine... 

The above process was applied initially [142,144] to destroy 100 ppm aniline and 4-chloroaniline in alkaline solutions of pH between 11 and 13 by anodic oxidation in the presence of H202 electrogenerated at an ODC (54 mM H202 at 600 mA). Both substrates presented pseudo first-order decays with half-lives less than 30 min at 600 mA. After 11 hr of electrolysis at 300 mA, a TOC decay >95% was found (see Table 4). Nitrobenzene and p-chloronitrobenzene were detected, respectively, as intermediates, which degraded via maleic acid. Cl was quantitatively released from 4-chloroaniline, and NH3 was a final product of both substrates. General reaction pathways involving oxidation of organics by OH and H02 were proposed. 

Brillas E, Mur E, Sauleda R, Sanchez L, Peral J, Domenech X, Casado J. Aniline mineralization by AOPs anodic oxidation, photocatalysis, electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton processes. Appl Catal B Environ 1998 16 31-42. 

Non-Reversible Processes. —Reactions of the non-reversible type, i.e., with systems which do not give reversible equilibrium potentials, occur most frequently with un-ionized organic compounds the cathodic reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline and the anodic oxidation of alcohol to acetic acid are instances of this type of process. A number of inorganic reactions, such as the electrolytic reduction of nitric acid and nitrates to hydroxylamine and ammonia, and the anodic oxidation of chromic ions to chromate, are also probably irreversible in character. Although the problems of electrolytic oxidation and reduction have been the subject of much experimental investigation, the exact mechanisms of the reactions involved are still in dispute. For example, the electrolytic reduction of the compound RO to R may be represented by... 

Polyanilines (Scheme 36) are conjugated polymers whose it electrons are delocalized over the whole molecule. They are important conducting polymers that also act as semiconductors, in a similar manner to inorganic semiconductors121 m. They are made by chemical or electrochemical (anodic) oxidation of aniline. The product, a poor textile colorant, dates from the 1860s, and is still known by the name given at that time, emeraldine. In the electrochemical process, it is possible to produce thin films directly on conductive substrates. Polyanilines have been used in photoelectrochemical devices124-126. 

In this review, attention is focused primarily on the oxidation mechanisms under the given conditions, which is the essential topic of interest for organic chemists. Reaction pathways will be outlined if they seem to be well established. However, even small differences in medium properties used by different researchers can lead to serious variations as will be shown in some examples. Anodic oxidation of unsubstituted aniline is discussed in Section II and electrode reactions of /V-substifilled and C-substituted anilines in Sections III and IV, respectively. In the last case, the oxidation of reactants with monosubstituted ring is presented first (para-substituents separately from the effects of ortho- and mefa-substituents), and next the oxidation of di- and trisubstituted anilines. In each part the processes in dipolar aprotic solvents, in particular in acetonitrile (ACN) and /V. /V-dimethylformamide (DMF), are compared with those proceeding in aqueous solutions, chiefly in commonly used acidic media. 

The general pattern of anodic behavior of para-substituted anilines (68) was established in aqueous acidic media by Bacon and Adams17,106. The postulated one-electron oxidation of the substrate to the radical cation 681 is followed by rapid head-to-tail coupling of 681 with the substrate 68 giving protonated 4 -substituted 4-aminodiphenylamine in the oxidized form (69) as the final main product. The product 69 shows reversible redox peaks at more cathodic potentials, supporting its identification beside the spectral and chemical analysis. The product formation is preceded by elimination of one para-substituent and, if it leaves as an anion (e.g. halide, methoxide or ethoxide ion), then the overall electrochemical process (equation 1) corresponds to a one-electron (two electrons per two reactant molecules) process. However, if it leaves as a neutral group (e.g. CO2 in the oxidation of p-aminobenzoic acid), a dimer is formed in the reduced form and the overall reaction is a two-electron process. 

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