Carbonyl groups, mercury electrode

Peroxides that are reduced irreversibly at the mercury electrode can be analyzed by polarography. IR, UV, NMR, and GC/MS are useful in structure characterization. IR absorption bands at 800-900 cm and in the region of carbonyl group are characteristics of diacyl peroxides, peroxydicarbonates, and peroxyesters. 

The first polarographic investigations of azomethines were carried out in the early forties [2, 3]. It was then found that they represented a convenient analytical form for the polarographic determination of various carbonyl compounds, and for a long time the investigations were concerned with their analytical applications. At that time very little information was obtained on the mechanism of the reduction of the azomethine group at the dropping mercury electrode. 

In acidic buffered solutions benzophenone-3,3 4,4 -tetracar-boxylic acid is reduced in two steps at the dropping mercury electrode. This corresponds to two quasidiffusion waves [59], of which the first represents reduction of the carbonyl group (n = 2) and the second corresponds to the benzene nuclei (n = 4). Both waves... 

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