Irreversibility, electrochemical chemical meaning

The Chemical Meaning of an Electrochemically Irreversible Process. As a chemical consideration, the occurrence of an electrochemically irreversible process implies so large an activation barrier to the electron transfer that it is likely that (as discussed in the introductory section, Figure. 1.2) it causes breakage of the original molecular frame with formation of new species (see Chapter 7, Section 5). 

Consider the cyclic voltammetry trace of electrically activated iridium oxide (the so called AIROF) which features reversible reactions (Fig. 3.3). The scan rate is very slow, so the dynamic behavior of the Helmholtz capacitance has a negligible effect on the measured trace. The positive peaks A and B correspond to two distinct oxidation reactions at the surface of the electrode, pertaining to different electrode potentials. The negative peaks C and D correspond to reduction reactions. C matches A and D matches B, as they have similar shape. The reduction potential peak (for example at C, Epc) does not happen at a negative electrode-electrolyte voltage drop, but at a positive one even near to the potential where oxidation potential peak (at A, Epa) is located. If the surface redox reactions are fast and the reaction rate is limited by the diffusion of the reactants in the solution, the difference between the oxidation and reduction peaks is only 59 mV/n for a reaction where n electrons are transferred in the stoichiometry of the reaction. This state is called electrochemical reversibility, which means that the thermodynamic equilibrium in the redox reaction at the surface is established fast at every applied electrode potential. Note that this concept is not the same as the chemical reversibility explained before. A system can be electrochemically irreversible but chemically reversible. As seen in Fig. 3.3, iridium oxide is already electrochemically irreversible even at the very slow potential ramp of 50 mV/s, as the , 4 — is already larger than 59 mV. 

These derivatives undergo an irreversible oxidation process. Assuming that such electron removal involves an electrochemically reversible process complicated by fast chemical reactions, a thermodynamic meaning can be assigned to the different peak potential values. 

The simplest way of generating and observing aryl halide anion radicals is to use an electrochemical technique such as cyclic voltammetry. With conventional microelectrodes (diameter in the millimetre range), the anion radical can be observed by means of its reoxidation wave down to lifetimes of 10" s. Under these conditions, it is possible to convert, upon raising the scan rate, the irreversible wave observed at low scan rates into a one-electron chemically reversible wave as shown schematically in Fig. 9. Although this does not provide any structural information about RX , besides the standard potential at which it is formed, it does constitute an unambiguous proof of its existence. Under these conditions, the standard potential of the RX/RX " couple as well as the kinetics of the decay of RX-" can be derived from the electrochemical data. Peak potential shifts (Fig. 9) can also be used... 

In these electrode processes, the use of macroelectrodes is recommended when the homogeneous kinetics is slow in order to achieve a commitment between the diffusive and chemical rates. When the chemical kinetics is very fast with respect to the mass transport and macroelectrodes are employed, the electrochemical response is insensitive to the homogeneous kinetics of the chemical reactions—except for first-order catalytic reactions and irreversible chemical reactions follow up the electron transfer—because the reaction layer becomes negligible compared with the diffusion layer. Under the above conditions, the equilibria behave as fully labile and it can be supposed that they are maintained at any point in the solution at any time and at any applied potential pulse. This means an independent of time (stationary) response cannot be obtained at planar electrodes except in the case of a first-order catalytic mechanism. Under these conditions, the use of microelectrodes is recommended to determine large rate constants. However, there is a range of microelectrode radii with which a kinetic-dependent stationary response is obtained beyond the upper limit, a transient response is recorded, whereas beyond the lower limit, the steady-state response is insensitive to the chemical kinetics because the kinetic contribution is masked by the diffusion mass transport. In the case of spherical microelectrodes, the lower limit corresponds to the situation where the reaction layer thickness does not exceed 80 % of the diffusion layer thickness. 

Reversible means that the rate of electron transfer at the electrode surface is fast and the concentrations of the oxidized and reduced species at the electrode surface are described by the Nernst equation (equation 8.21). On the other hand, the transfer of electron(s) to or from a compoxmd may be slow or may be followed by a chemical change, i.e. it is electrochemically or chemically irreversible. 

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