Electron-transfer kinetics, slow

Influence of the Kinetics of Electron Transfer on the Faradaic Current The rate of mass transport is one factor influencing the current in a voltammetric experiment. The ease with which electrons are transferred between the electrode and the reactants and products in solution also affects the current. When electron transfer kinetics are fast, the redox reaction is at equilibrium, and the concentrations of reactants and products at the electrode are those specified by the Nernst equation. Such systems are considered electrochemically reversible. In other systems, when electron transfer kinetics are sufficiently slow, the concentration of reactants and products at the electrode surface, and thus the current, differ from that predicted by the Nernst equation. In this case the system is electrochemically irreversible. 

Substantial loss in sensitivity is expected for analytes with slow electron-transfer kinetics. This may be advantageous for measurements of species with fast electron-transfer kinetics in the presence of a species (e.g., dissolved oxygen) that is irreversible. (For the same reason, the technique is very useful for the study of electron processes.) Theoretical discussions on AC voltammetry are available in the literature (16-18). 

S.3.3 Electrocatalytic Modified Electrodes Often the desired redox reaction at the bare electrode involves slow electron-transfer kinetics and therefore occurs at an appreciable rate only at potentials substantially higher than its thermodynamic redox potential. Such reactions can be catalyzed by attaching to the surface a suitable electron transfer mediator (45,46). Knowledge of homogeneous solution kinetics is often used to select the surface-bound catalyst. The function of the mediator is to facilitate the charge transfer between the analyte and the electrode. In most cases the mediated reaction sequence (e.g., for a reduction process) can be described by... 

FIGURE 4.1 3. a RDEV response of a monolayer catalytic coating for the reaction scheme in Figure 4.10 with a slow P/Q electron transfer. Kinetic parameter [equation (4.5)] kr°8/DA = 5. The same electrode transfer MHL law as in Figure 1.18. Dotted line Nemstian limiting case. Solid lines from left to right, e (5r0DAC = 1, 0.1, 0.01. h Derivation of the catalytic rate constant, c Derivation of the kinetic law. 

Cyclic voltammetry is generally considered to be of limited use in ultratrace electrochemical analysis. This is because the high double layercharging currents observed at a macroelectrode make the signal-to-back-ground ratio low. The voltammograms in Eig. 9B clearly show that at the NEEs, cyclic voltammetry can be a very powerful electroanalytical technique. There is, however, a caveat. Because the NEEs are more sensitive to electron transfer kinetics, the enhancement in detection limit that is, in principle, possible could be lost for couples with low values of the heterogeneous rate constant. This is because one effect of slow electron transfer kinetics at the NEE is to lower the measured Faradaic currents (e.g.. Fig. 8). 

This sensitivity to slow electron transfer kinetics could, however, prove to be an advantage in sensor applications where a mediator, with fast electron transfer kinetics, is used to shuttle electrons to a redox enzyme [82]. Chemical species that are electroactive in the same potential region as the mediator can act as interferants at such sensors. If such an interfering electroactive species shows slow electron transfer kinetics, it might be possible to eliminate this interference at the NEE. This is because at the NEE, the redox wave for the kinetically slow interferant might be unobservable in the region where the kinetically fast mediator is electroactive. We are currently exploring this possibility. 

A number of studies were done in order to determine which of these various factors contribute to the large peak separations observed here. First, it is well known that the effects of resistive elements can be obviated by applying positive feedback [132]. When positive feedback was applied to a thin-film confrol elecfrode similar fo fhaf described in Fig. 27, the peak separation decreased from 0.8 to —0.35 V (Fig. 28). These data show that resistance does, indeed, contribute to the large AEp values observed here. However, the fact that —0.35 V of this peak splitting cannot be removed by applying positive feedback clearly indicates that slow electron transfer kinetics also contribute to AEp. ... 

The decreased contribution due to slow electron transfer kinetics for the microtubular electrode is also attributable to the higher underlying surface area of the tubular current collector. Because the surface area is higher, the effective current density for the microtubular TiS2 is less than for the thin film TiS2, which has a conventional planar current collector. The decreased contributions of film resistance and slow electron transfer kinetics also account for the higher peak current density of the microtubular electrodes (Fig. 27). 

In contrast to the facile reduction of aqueous V(III) (—0.26 V versus NHE) [23, 24], coordination of anionic polydentate ligands decreases the reduction potential dramatically. The reduction of the seven-coordinate capped-octahedral [23] [V(EDTA)(H20)] complex = —1.440 V versus Cp2Fe/H20) has been studied extensively [25,26]. The redox reaction shows moderately slow electron-transfer kinetics, but is independent of pH in the range from 5.0 to 9.0, with no follow-up reactions, a feature that reflects the substitutional inertness of both oxidation states. In the presence of nitrate ion, reduction of [V(EDTA) (H20)] results in electrocatalytic regeneration of this V(III) complex. The mechanism was found to consist of two second-order pathways - a major pathway due to oxidation of V(II) by nitrate, and a minor pathway which is second order in nitrate. This mechanism is different from the comproportionation observed during... 

Yamamoto also explored triphenylamine core dendrimers of the form Corei7-Rpti2-Periph15.125 In this system, the redox process studied was the oxidation of this core moiety. They showed that as the generation of the dendrimer increased from 1 to 4, the shape of the CV broadened, indicating slowing electron transfer kinetics. 

Ohmic error is not obvious in data on the Ni(II)/Ni(I) couple for this molecule (Table 23.3B), since a systematic decrease in the determined values of ks/D1/2 is not found. With a ks value of 0.025 cm/s, this couple has AEp values that are much larger than those of the Ni(III)/Ni(II) couple, and errors of, for example, 10 mV are small when compared to the inherent AEp arising from sluggish electron transfer kinetics. In this system, the slow electron transfer kinetics probably arise from molecular structure changes concomitant with the Ni(II)/Ni(I) electron transfer. A good discussion of the influence of ohmic errors on determination of kj values in various nonaqueous media is available [13]. 

As noted in Section 2, when the electron-transfer kinetics are slow relative to mass transport (rate determining), the process is no longer in equilibrium and does not therefore obey the Nernst equation. As a result of the departure from equilibrium, the kinetics of electron transfer at the electrode surface have to be considered when discussing the voltammetry of non-reversible systems. This is achieved by replacement of the Nernstian thermodynamic condition by a kinetic boundary condition (36). 

Figure 2. Electron transfer kinetics of cytochrome c oxidation in Chromatium vinosum [4] and Rhodopseudomonas viridis [16] display temperature independence at low temperature, a herald of tunneling. The early Chromatium data were analyzed as a single phase, while the Rp. viridis data were analyzed into three phases, dominated by very fast (VF) and fast (F) phases at high temperatures, and dominated by slow (S) phase at low temperatures.

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