Electrochemical reaction bond breaking

Iron porphyrins (containing TPP, picket fence porphyrin, or a basket handle porphyrin) catalyzed the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO at the Fe(I)/Fe(0) wave in DMF, although the catalyst was destroyed after a few cycles. Addition of a Lewis acid, for example Mg , dramatically improved the rate, the production of CO, and the stability of the catalyst. The mechanism was proposed to proceed by reaction of the reduced iron porphyrin Fe(Por)] with COi to form a carbene-type intermediate [Fe(Por)=C(0 )2, in which the presence of the Lewis acid facilitates C—O bond breaking. " The addition of a Bronsted acid (CF3CH2OH, n-PrOH or 2-pyrrolidone) also results in improved catalyst efficiency and lifetime, with turnover numbers up to. 750 per hour observed. ... 

In this chapter, we wiU review electrochemical electron transfer theory on metal electrodes, starting from the theories of Marcus [1956] and Hush [1958] and ending with the catalysis of bond-breaking reactions. On this route, we will explore the relation to ion transfer reactions, and also cover the earlier models for noncatalytic bond breaking. Obviously, this will be a tour de force, and many interesting side-issues win be left unexplored. However, we hope that the unifying view that we present, based on a framework of model Hamiltonians, will clarify the various aspects of this most important class of electrochemical reactions. 

As depicted in Scheme 1, reductive and oxidative cleavages may follow either a concerted or a stepwise mechanism. How the dynamics of concerted electron transfer/bond breaking reactions (heretofore called dissociative electron transfers) may be modeled, and particularly what the contribution is of bond breaking to the activation barrier, is the first question we will discuss (Section 2). In this area, the most numerous studies have concerned thermal heterogeneous (electrochemical) and homogeneous reactions. 

The first attempt to describe the dynamics of dissociative electron transfer started with the derivation from existing thermochemical data of the standard potential for the dissociative electron transfer reaction, rx r.+x-,12 14 with application of the Butler-Volmer law for electrochemical reactions12 and of the Marcus quadratic equation for a series of homogeneous reactions.1314 Application of the Marcus-Hush model to dissociative electron transfers had little basis in electron transfer theory (the same is true for applications to proton transfer or SN2 reactions). Thus, there was no real justification for the application of the Marcus equation and the contribution of bond breaking to the intrinsic barrier was not established. 

It is also worth emphasizing that recent theoretical work on photoinduced stepwise and concerted electron transfer/bond-breaking reactions opens the route to a more systematic combination than before of the electrochemical and photochemical approaches to the same problems. 

Electrochemical reactions can be broken down into two groups outer-sphere electron-transfer reactions and inner-sphere electron transfer reactions. Outer-sphere reactions are reactions that only involve electron transfer. There is no adsorption and no breaking or forming of chemical bonds. Because of their simplicity, numerous studies have been performed, many entirely theoretical.18-25 By definition, though, electrode reactions are not outer-sphere reactions. However, if charge transfer is rate limiting for an electrode reaction, it typically takes a form similar to that of an outer-sphere reaction, which is described later in this section. 

The initial steps of the Kolbe reaction, the oldest organic electrochemical reaction, constitute a good illustration of the loss of an acid moiety upon oxidative electron transfer (Scheme 2.24). The issue of the stepwise versus concerted character of the electron transfer/bond-breaking process in this reaction is discussed in Chapter 3. 

Because of the precise control of the redox steps by means of the electrode potential and the facile measurement of the kinetics through the current, the electrochemical approach to. S rn I reactions is particularly well suited to assessing the validity of the. S rn I mechanism and identifying the side reactions (termination steps of the chain process). It also allows full kinetic characterization of the reaction sequence. The two key steps of the reaction are the cleavage of the initial anion radical, ArX -, and conversely, formation of the product anion radical, ArNu -. Modeling these reactions as concerted intramolecular electron transfer/bond-breaking and bond-forming processes, respectively, allows the establishment of reactivity-structure relationships as shown in Section 3.5. 

In the early 1990s a few classical semimoleculai and molecular models of electron transfer reactions involving bond breaking appeared in the literature. A quantum mechanical treatment of a unified mr el of electrochemical electron and ion transfer reactions involving bond breaking was put forward by Schmickler using Anderson-Newns Hamiltonian formalism (see Section V.2). 

In the case of stepwise electron-transfer bond-breaking processes, the kinetics of the electron transfer can be analysed according to the Marcus-Hush theory of outer sphere electron transfer. This is a first reason why we will start by recalling the bases and main outcomes of this theory. It will also serve as a starting point for attempting to analyse inner sphere processes. Alkyl and aryl halides will serve as the main experimental examples because they are common reactants in substitution reactions and because, at the same time, a large body of rate data, both electrochemical and chemical, are available. A few additional experimental examples will also be discussed. 

Fig. 5 Electrochemical stepwise electron-transfer-bond-breaking reactions. Competition between electron transfer, bond breaking and diffusion. E i2, Half-wave potential RX/RX- standard potential. The horizontal scale is given both in terms of X and k. The number on each curve is the value of A, and the value of log ky is given in parentheses. 5 is taken as 10 cm and D as 10" cm s" . (Adapted from Andrieux et al., 1978.)...

It follows that the value of the electrochemical transfer coefficient may allow the distinction between stepwise and concerted electron-transfer-bond-breaking reactions when a chemical bond of normal strength is involved (Andrieux and Saveant, 1986b Andrieux et al., 1990b). If the reduction wave possesses the characteristics of a process controlled by slow electron transfer rather than controlled by a follow-up reaction, and if a is significantly larger than 0.5, then one can conclude that the reaction proceeds in a stepwise manner. The same is true when the wave exhibits the characteristics of a process controlled by a follow-up reaction, electron transfer remaining at equilibrium. 

The gas-liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (GLC-MS) analysis of the electrolyzed solution has shown that thiophenol is the only reduction product and the S—S bond cleavage is quantitative. Such a mechanism of bond breaking was confirmed by electrochemical studies. In cyclic voltammograms, anodic and cathodic peak potentials were the same for thiophenol and diphenyl disulfides thus the same species were participating in these processes. Electrode reactions of diphenyl disulfide are given by the following equations [166] ... 

The two models discussed were developed for electrochemical outer-sphere reactions. Most electrochemical reactions, especially those of technological usefulness, however, involve the breaking or formation of chemical bonds during the electron transfer. 

The future of calculations in electrochemical kinetics must involve bond-breaking reactions because most electrochemical reactions involve them. The work of Saveant (1992)... 

On the other hand, among electrode reactions involving bond-breaking steps, theoretical approaches to the hydrogen electrode reaction have been extensively treated in the electrochemical literature [31, 41, 58— 62]. These reactions can be regarded as heterogeneous proton transfer processes. 

It is conventional to classify electrochemical reactions as outer-sphere and inner-sphere. The former involve the outer coordination sphere of a reacting ion. Thus, little if any change inside the ion solvate shell occurs they proceed without breaking-up intramolecular bonds. But in the latter, involving the inner coordination sphere, electron transfer is accompanied by breaking up or formation of such bonds. Often the inner-sphere reactions are complicated by adsorption of reactants and/or reaction products on the electrode surface. The electron transfer in the Fc(CN)62 /4 system is example of an outer-sphere reaction (with due reservation for some complications... 

The problem of estimating the structure of the transition state of an electrochemical process is especially important with respect to possible concerted reactions, i.e. reactions at which the electron transfer coincides with bond breaking or formation. The reduction of a protonated water molecule has been described in exactly those terms which an organic chemist would use for an ordinary concerted mechanism. 

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