Electron transfer reactions competition with coalescence

A number of rate constants for reactions of transients derived from the reduction of metal ions and metal complexes were determined by pulse radiolysis [58]. Because of the shortlived character of atoms and oligomers, the determination of their redox potential is possible only by kinetic methods using pulse radiolysis. In the couple Mj/M , the reducing properties of M as electron donor as well as oxidizing properties of as electron acceptor are deduced from the occurrence of an electron transfer reaction with a reference reactant of known potential. These reactions obviously occur in competition with the cascade of coalescence processes. The unknown potential °(M /M ) is derived by comparing the action of several reference systems of different potentials. 

Cluster properties, mostly those that control electron transfer processes such as the redox potential in solution, are markedly dependent on their nuclearity. Therefore, clusters of the same metal may behave as electron donor or as electron acceptor, depending on their size. Pulse radiolysis associated with time-resolved optical absorption spectroscopy is used to generate isolated metal atoms and to observe transitorily the subsequent clusters of progressive nuclearity yielded by coalescence. Applied to silver clusters, the kinetic study of the competition of coalescence with reactions in the presence of added reactants of variable redox potential allows us to describe the autocatalytic processes of growth or corrosion of the clusters by electron transfer. The results provide the size dependence of the redox potential of some metal clusters. The influence of the environment (surfactant, ligand, or support) and the role of electron relay of metal clusters in electron transfer catalysis are discussed. 

The transient character of unstable species is intrinsically because of at least one fast reaction which they undergo as soon as they are formed (for example coalescence reaction in the case of atoms and clusters). This reaction therefore induces competition with any redox reaction which could be regarded as determining the redox potential of a transient entity. In particular, the competition does not enable the establishment of a reversible equilibrium of electron transfer with another suitable system. Thus, the redox potential of short-hved species must be evaluated from kinetic methods - the pulse technique enables us to observe whether or not electron transfer involving the transient species and a series of donor/acceptor couples, used as monitors, is elfective, and thus to establish by a bracketing method the value of the imknown redox potential. Only elementary monoelectronic transfers are considered. Thus, note that one of the forms of the reference couple, reduced or oxidized, can also be a transient radical. 

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