At metal electrodes

When first developed, potentiometry was restricted to redox equilibria at metallic electrodes, limiting its application to a few ions. In 1906, Cremer discovered that a potential difference exists between the two sides of a thin glass membrane when opposite sides of the membrane are in contact with solutions containing different concentrations of H3O+. This discovery led to the development of the glass pH electrode in 1909. Other types of membranes also yield useful potentials. Kolthoff and Sanders, for example, showed in 1937 that pellets made from AgCl could be used to determine the concentration of Ag+. Electrodes based on membrane potentials are called ion-selective electrodes, and their continued development has extended potentiometry to a diverse array of analytes. 

S.2.2 Carbon Electrodes Solid electrodes based on carbon are currently in widespread use in electroanalysis, primarily because of their broad potential window, low background current, rich surface chemistry, low cost, chemical inertness, and suitability for various sensing and detection applications. In contrast, electron-transfer rates observed at carbon surfaces are often slower than those observed at metal electrodes. The electron-transfer reactivity is strongly affected by the origin... 

Models have been proposed to reproduce the curves in Fig. 8. Behavior at metal electrodes was discussed by Frumkin and Damaskin in this... 

The extent of the agreement of the theoretical calculations with the experiments is somewhat unexpected since MSA is an approximate theory and the underlying model is rough. In particular, water is not a system of dipolar hard spheres.281 However, the good agreement is an indication of the utility of recent advances in the application of statistical mechanics to the study of the electric dipole layer at metal electrodes. 

R. Nichols, in Adsorption ofMolecules at Metal Electrodes, J. Lipkowski andP. N. Ross, eds., VCH, Weinheim, 1992, p. 347. 

Dobson JC, McLamon FR, Cairns EJ (1986) Voltammetry of sodium polysulfides at metal electrodes. J Electrochem Soc 133 2069-2076... 

Electrochemical reactions at semiconductor electrodes have a number of special features relative to reactions at metal electrodes these arise from the electronic structure found in the bulk and at the surface of semiconductors. The electronic structure of metals is mainly a function only of their chemical nature. That of semiconductors is also a function of other factors acceptor- or donor-type impurities present in bulk, the character of surface states (which in turn is determined largely by surface pretreatment), the action of light, and so on. Therefore, the electronic structure of semiconductors having a particular chemical composition can vary widely. This is part of the explanation for the appreciable scatter of experimental data obtained by different workers. For reproducible results one must clearly define all factors that may influence the state of the semiconductor. 

Pettinger, B., In situ Raman spectroscopy at metal electrodes, in Adsorption of Molecules at Metal Electrodes, 1. Lipkowski and P. N. Ross, Eds., VCH, New York, 1992, p. 285. 

It follows from the Franck-Condon principle that in electrochemical redox reactions at metal electrodes, practically only the electrons residing at the highest occupied level of the metal s valence band are involved (i.e., the electrons at the Fermi level). At semiconductor electrodes, the electrons from the bottom of the condnc-tion band or holes from the top of the valence band are involved in the reactions. Under equilibrium conditions, the electrochemical potential of these carriers is eqnal to the electrochemical potential of the electrons in the solution. Hence, mntnal exchange of electrons (an exchange cnrrent) is realized between levels having the same energies. 

Let us consider a cathode electron transfer process at metal electrode. The role of the electron donor is played here by the metal electrode. The specific feature of this donor consists of the fact that its electron energy spectrum is practically continuous... 

The reorganization energy of the slow polarization for the reactions at metal electrodes can be calculated with the use of Eqs. (34.11). For a spherical model of the reacting ion, it is equal approximately to... 

Hydrogen evolution at metal electrodes is one of the most important electrochemical processes. The mechanisms of the overall reaction depend on the nature of the electrode and solution. However, all of them involve the transfer of proton from a donor molecule in the solution to the adsorbed state on the electrode surface as the first step. The mechanism of the elementary act of proton transfer from the hydroxonium ion to the adsorbed state on the metal surface is discussed in this section. 

Interfacial water molecules play important roles in many physical, chemical and biological processes. A molecular-level understanding of the structural arrangement of water molecules at electrode/electrolyte solution interfaces is one of the most important issues in electrochemistry. The presence of oriented water molecules, induced by interactions between water dipoles and electrode and by the strong electric field within the double layer has been proposed [39-41]. It has also been proposed that water molecules are present at electrode surfaces in the form of clusters [42, 43]. Despite the numerous studies on the structure of water at metal electrode surfaces using various techniques such as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy [44, 45], surface infrared spectroscopy [46, 47[, surface enhanced infrared spectroscopy [7, 8] and X-ray diffraction [48, 49[, the exact nature of the structure of water at an electrode/solution interface is still not fully understood. 

KoperMTM, Voth GA. 1998. A theory for adiabatic bond breaking electron transfer reactions at metal electrodes. Chem Phys Lett 282 100-106. 

Santos E, Koper MTM, Schmickler W. 2008. Bond-breaking electron transfer of diatomic reactants at metal electrodes. Chem Phys 344 195-201. 

Mechanisms of the Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide and Small Organic Molecules at Metal Electrodes... 

Conway BE. 1999. Electrochentical processes involving H adsorbed at metal electrode surfaces. In Wieckowski A. editor. Interfacial electrochemistry. Theory, experiment, and applications. New York Marcel Dekker. 

Despite the fact that the electrodeposition of copper and silver at the water-DCE and the water-dichloromethane interfaces has been generally regarded as the first experimental evidence for heterogeneous ET at externally biased ITIES [171], a very limited amount of work has dealt with this type of process. This reaction has also theoretical interest because the molecular liquid-liquid interface can be seen as an ideal substrate for electrochemical nucleation studies due to the weak interactions between the interface and the newly formed phase and the lack of preferential nucleation sites always present at metallic electrodes. 

Parsons, R., Inner layer structure and the adsorption of organic compounds at metal electrodes,/. Electroanal. Chem., 29, 1563 (1984). 

Mechanisms of carbon dioxide reduction in both aqueous and nonaqueous solutions have been studied mainly at metal electrodes. 

Halmann reported in 1978 the first example of the reduction of carbon dioxide at a p-GaP electrode in an aqueous solution (0.05 M phosphate buffer, pH 6.8).95 At -1.0 V versus SCE, the initial photocurrent under C02 was 6 mA/ cm2, decreasing to 1 mA/cm2 after 24 h, while the dark current was 0.1 mA/cm2. In contrast to the electrochemical reduction of C02 on metal electrodes, formic acid, which is a main product at metal electrodes, was further reduced to formaldehyde and methanol at an illuminated p-GaP. Analysis of the solution after photoassisted electrolysis for 18 and 90 h showed that the products were 1.2 x 10-2 and 5 x 10 2 M formic acid, 3.2 x 10 4 and 2.8 x 10-4 M formaldehyde, and 1.1 x 10-4 and 8.1xlO 4M methanol, respectively. The maximum optical conversion efficiency calculated from Eq. (23) for production of formaldehyde and methanol (assuming 100% current efficiency) was 5.6 and 3.6%, respectively, where the bias voltage against a carbon anode was -0.8 to -0.9 V and 365-nm monochromatic light was used. In a later publication,4 these values were given as ca. 1% or less, where actual current efficiencies were taken into account [Eq. (24)]. 

Reduction of carbon dioxide takes place at various metal electrodes. The main products are formic acid in aqueous solutions and oxalate, CO, and formic acid in nonaqueous solutions. An indium electrode is the most potential saving for C02 reduction. Due to the difference in optimum conditions between those for C02 reduction to formic acid and those for formic acid reduction to further reduced products, direct reduction of C02 in aqueous solutions without a catalyst to highly reduced products seems to be difficult at metal electrodes. However, catalytic effects of metal electrodes themselves have recently become more clear for example, on Cu, methane was detected, while on Ag and Au, CO was produced effectively in aqueous solutions. Furthermore, at a Mo electrode, methanol was obtained. The power efficiency is, however, still low at any electrode. 

The charge distribution at metal electrode-electrolyte interfaces for liquid and frozen electrolytes has been investigated through capacity measurements using the lock-in technique and impedance spectroscopy. Before we discuss some of the important results, let us briefly consider some properties of the electrolyte in its liquid and frozen state. 

Prior to the 1970 s, electrochemical kinetic studies were largely directed towards faradaic reactions occurring at metal electrodes. While certain questions remain unanswered, a combination of theoretical and experimental studies has produced a relatively mature picture of electron transfer at the metal-solution interface f1-41. Recent interest in photoelectrochemical processes has extended the interest in electrochemical kinetics to semiconductor electrodes f5-151. Despite the pioneering work of Gerischer (11-141 and Memming (15), many aspects of electron transfer kinetics at the semiconductor-solution interface remain controversial or unexplained. 

Consideration of these primary processes together with the voltammetric results for the M/ OH systems (Figures 1-3), the potentiometric titration data (Figure 4), and the voltammetric data for O2 reduction at metal electrodes (Figure 5) and in the presence of metal ions at a glassy carbon electrode (Figures 6 and 7), prompts the formulation of self-consistent reaction Schemes for the three metals in combination with OH and O2 (Schemes I,... 

---