Homogeneity, electroactive

A novel approach to electrode design using polymeric ligands was recently illustrated using the nickel—triphenylphosphine system.80 An effective homogeneous electroactive catalyst (Ni/PPh3) is solubilized with 2% crosslinked polystyrene phenylphosphine. The complexed polymer is then... 

In the PANI.TSA/PLA blended electrospun nanofibers no phase segregation of PANI in a PLA matrix was observed, while phase segregation was observed in cast films with the same composition. Due to rapid solvent evaporation in the electrospinning process, no crystalline structures in fiber mats were formed compared to cast films. Highly homogeneous electroactive fibers can be useful in the construction of electronic devices and sensors. Similar behavior was observed in the PVDF-TrFE/PANI-PSSA electrospun nanofibers. 

Shi et al. have developed another method for the electrochemical polymerization of high oxidation potential monomers in boron fluoride ethyl ether (BFEE) which could yield highly conducting PT films (Scheme 9.4) [32]. As observed in the case of the electropolymerization of 3-methylthiophene, bithiophene 2T and terthiophene 3T, such improvement stems from the lower oxidation potentials at which the electropolymerization occurs in BFEE compared with those required in common electrolytes. Recent development of this strategy by the Reynolds group has shown that thiophene, 3-methylthiophene, 3-bromothiophene and 3,4-dibromothiophene can be polymerized in BFEE to yield homogeneous, electroactive polymer films, where their electrochemical polymerization in common electrochemical solvents has proved much more difficult [33],... 

Homogeneous liquid membrane electrodes. This type, which is in limited use, is sometimes considered as a solid ion-exchange electrode as the electroactive species, e.g., calcium dioctylphosphate, after being dissolved in an ethanol-diethyl ether solution of collodion, is left to "dry and can function as an ion-selective pellet in an electrode tip. Orion37 use these electrodes with PVC-gelled membranes for Ca2+, K+, BF4 and N03. ... 

It is possible that the species Red generated at the electrode surface may be unstable and tend to decompose. It may also be involved in chemical reactions with other species present in solution while it is moving towards the mass of the solution (homogeneous chemical reactions) or while it is still adsorbed on the electrode surface (heterogeneous chemical reactions). Furthermore, the new species formed during such reactions may be electroactive. These kind of reactions are called following chemical reactions (following, obviously, the electron transfer). 

DENs can be immobilized on electroactive substrates to prepare heterogenized homogeneous catalysts. Electrochemical grafting of hydroxyl-terminated Pt DENs... 

The electron formed as a product of equation (2.5) will usually be received (or collected ) by an electrode. It is quite common to see the electrode described as a sink of electrons. We need to note, though, that there are two classes of electron-transfer reaction we could have considered. We say that a reaction is heterogeneous when the electroactive material is in solution and is electro-modified at an electrode which exists as a separate phase (it is usually a solid). Conversely, if the electron-transfer reaction occurs between two species, both of which are in solution, as occurs during a potentiometric titration (see Chapter 4), then we say that the electron-transfer reaction is homogeneous. It is not possible to measure the current during a homogeneous reaction since no electrode is involved. The vast majority of examples studied here will, by necessity, involve a heterogeneous electron transfer, usually at a solid electrode. 

In the CE electrode mechanism the electroactive reactant is produced by means of a preceding homogeneous chemical reaction [15,55,60], Assuming an oxidative mechanism, the simplest form of the CE scheme is as follows ... 

In addition to mass transport from the bulk of the electrolyte phase, electroactive material may also be supplied at the electrode surface by homogeneous or heterogeneous chemical reaction. For example, hydrogen ions required in an electrode process may be generated by the dissociation of a weak acid. As this is an uncommon mechanism so far as practical batteries are concerned (but not so for fuel cells), the theory of reaction overvoltage will not be further developed here. However, it may be noted that Tafel-like behaviour and the formation of limiting currents are possible in reaction controlled electrode processes. 

These effects are due to the electrostatic work necessary to bring the electroactive ion to a charged interface, where the electrode reaction takes place, and it is essentially equivalent to the electrostatic contribution to the free energy of activation in homogeneous ionic reactions in solution (Vol. 2, Chap. 4). 

The homogeneous reaction may be of first or second order in the latter case, X is a non-electroactive species. Both these cases have been studied at the rotating ring—disc electrode and the first-order case at a double channel electrode. 

Recently, a numerical solution has been obtained for the LSV response to a homogeneous catalytic reaction at an electroactive-monolayer-film-covered rotating disc electrode [279]. 

In the real world, the simple redox couple may be perturbed by finite ET rates, by adsorption of O and/or R on the electrode surface, and by homogeneous (i.e., in solution) chemical kinetics involving O and/or R. Various combinations of heterogeneous ET steps (E) with homogeneous chemical steps (C) are encountered. It should be clear that if one or more species in equilibrium in solution are electroactive, electrochemistry can be used to perturb the equilibrium and study the solution chemistry. 

The catalytic regeneration mechanism is a variation of the EC mechanism in which the initial electroactive species is regenerated by the homogeneous chemical reaction, as follows ... 

The important concept in these dynamic electrochemical methods is diffusion-controlled oxidation or reduction. Consider a planar electrode that is immersed in a quiescent solution containing O as the only electroactive species. This situation is illustrated in Figure 3.1 A, where the vertical axis represents concentration and the horizontal axis represents distance from the electrodesolution interface. This interface or boundary between electrode and solution is indicated by the vertical line. The dashed line is the initial concentration of O, which is homogeneous in the solution the initial concentration of R is zero. The excitation function that is impressed across the electrode-solution interface consists of a potential step from an initial value E , at which there is no current due to a redox process, to a second potential Es, as shown in Figure 3.2. The value of this second potential is such that essentially all of O at the electrode surface is instantly reduced to R as in the generalized system of Reaction 3.1 ... 

Chlorobenzonitrile and adrenaline, our second example, both give electrode products that are unstable with respect to subsequent chemical reaction. Because the products of these homogeneous chemical reactions are also electroactive in the potential range of interest, the overall electrode reaction is referred to as an ECE process that is, a chemical reaction is interposed between electron transfer reactions. Adrenaline differs from/ -chlorobenzonitrile in that (1) the product of the chemical reactions, leucoadrenochrome, is more readily oxidized than the parent species, and (2) the overall rate of the chemical reactions is sufficiently slow so as to permit kinetic studies by electrochemical methods. As a final note before the experimental results are presented, the enzymic oxidation of adrenaline was known to give adrenochrome. Accordingly, the emphasis in the work described by Adams and co-workers [2] was on the preparation and study of the intermediates. 

Chemical modification of electrode surfaces by polymer films offers the advantages of inherent chemical and physical stability, incorporation of large numbers of electroactive sites, and relatively facile electron transport across the film. Since th% polymer films usually contain the equivalent of one to more than 10 monolayers of electroactive sites, the resulting electrochemical responses are generally larger and thus more easily observed than those of immobilized monomolecular layers. Also, the concentration of sites in the film can be as high as 5 mol/L and may influence the reactivity of the sites because their solvent and ionic environments differ considerably from dilute homogeneous solutions [9]. 

Identification of the main electroactive antioxidants involved in the global anodic signal recorded on the stratum comeum or in the cream is difficult due to the wide diversity of components. Indeed, species can react according to a heterogeneous way directly at the electrode or according to a homogeneous coupled reaction. 

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