Electrochemical Processes Isomers

The shape of this wave and the variation with pH are both consistent with fast equ-librium reactions In the pH region lower than the value of pK, for the hydroxyl radical, the reactions of this hydroxyl radical dominate the electrochemical process. Controlled potential reduction at the potential of this first wave indicates a IF process and the principal products are dimers of the hydroxyl radical. The second wave in this acidic region is due to addition of an electron and a proton to the neutral radical. This process competes with dimerization in the mid-pH range where the two polarographic waves merge. Over the pH range 7-9, monohydric alcohol is the principal product. At pH <3 or >12, pinacols are the main products. Unsymmet-rical carbonyl compounds afford mixtures of ( )- and meso-pinacols. Data (Table 10.3) for the ( ) / meso isomer ratio for pinacols from acetophenone and propio-phenone indicate different dimerization mechanisms in acid and in alkaline solutions. 

Generation of carbonium ion 16 by solvolysis of either cis- or trans-l-p-nitrobenzoyloxy-2-t-butylindane in acetic acid produces exclusively the tram isomer, showing that the electrochemical process indeed lias different stereochemistry, although the effect is not very pronounced. 

Ion association or ion-pairing reactions are most commonly studied for clathrochelate complexes exhibiting unique inertness. These reactions attract particular interest due to their marked effect on the kinetics and direction of the redox and photochemical reactions and on the characteristics of electrochemical processes. In certain cases, ion association reactions govern the catalytic activity of compounds. The ion-pairing ability of clathrochelates is utilized to resolve racemates into optical isomers (enantiomers) and to separate optically active anions using clathrochelates as chiral eluents. 

Concentration profiles for the variation of the concentration of the different topological redox isomers with depth were estimated from chronoamperometric and chronocoulometric data. Application of methods described in Section 2.5 led researchers to establish that the electrochemical process represented by Equation (4.9) is controlled by electron diffusion with = 1 x 10 crnVscc (Domenech et al., 2009). Resulting curves are shown in Figure 4.20 for a three-isomer system. 

The addition of a spillover proton to an adsorbed alkene to yield a secondary carbonium ion followed by abstraction of a proton from the C3 carbon would yield both isomers of 2-butene. The estimated faradaic efficiencies show that each electromigrated proton causes up to 28 molecules of butene to undergo isomerization. This catalytic step is for intermediate potentials much faster than the consumption of the proton by the electrochemical reduction of butene to butane. However, the reduction of butene to butane becomes significant at lower potentials, i.e., less than 0.1V, with a concomitant inhibition of the isomerization process, as manifest in Fig. 9.31 by the appearance of the maxima of the cis- and tram-butene formation rates. 

The difference between the two reactions of Scheme 2.9 may also be considered in terms of the complete electron transfer in both cases. If the a-nitrostilbene anion-radical and metallocomplex cation-radical are formed as short-lived intermediates, then the dimerization of the former becomes doubtful. The dimerization under electrochemical conditions may be a result of increased concentration of reactive anion-radicals near the electrode. This concentration is simply much higher in the electrochemical reaction because all of the stuff is being formed at the electrode, and therefore, there is more dimerization. Such a difference between electrode and chemical reactions should be kept in mind. In special experiments, only 2% of the anion-radical of a-nitrostilbene were prepared after interruption of controlled-potential electrolysis at a platinum gauze electrode. The kept potential was just past the cathodic peak. The electrolysis was performed in the well-stirred solution of trani -a-nitrostilbene in AN. Both processes developed in this case, namely, trans-to-cis conversion and dimerization (Kraiya et al. 2004). The partial electrolysis of a-nitrostilbene resulted in redox-catalyzed equilibration of the neutral isomers. 

In the major isomer, the bipyridinium unit is located inside the cavity of the macrocyclic poly ether and the /7Y//7,v-bis(pyridinium)ethylene unit is positioned alongside, as confirmed by the electrochemical analysis. The cyclic voltammo-gram of the catenane shows four monoelectronic processes that, by a comparison with the data obtained for the free cyclophane, can be attributed as follows the first and third processes to the first and second reductions of the bipyridinium unit, and the second and fourth ones to the first and second reductions of the trans-bis (pyridinium)ethylene unit. The comparison with the tetracationic cyclophane also evidences that all these reductions are shifted toward more negative potential values (Fig. 13.33b). 

Other methanofullerenes (not of the Bingel-type) were also found to be unstable after several reduction processes (68-70, Figure 23), [9-11] and under CPE they led to the isolation of [60]fullerene. A more recent study was conducted in THF to avoid the well-known reactivity of CH2CI2 towards the polyanions of C60 [72] and to explore the mechanisms involved during adduct removal [9b,10], Surprisingly, an electrochemically induced intermolecular adduct transfer was observed for the spiromethanofullerenes studied, and the regio-isomer distribution found in THF differed significantly from that obtained when the compounds are prepared by a direct synthetic route [10], The proposed mechanism for the formation of... 

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