Quasi-reversible reactions, cyclic voltammetry

Macrocyclic N-donor ligands. Nickel complexes of macrocyclic ligands have been studied by cyclic voltammetry, and the irreversible or quasi-reversible couples Ni" L Ni L Ni L have been established. The structure of (124) has been reported and the co-ordination is essentially square-planar with a slight tetrahedral distortion. The reaction of [Ni(pn)3] with... 

Electron transfer reactions are classified as reversible, quasi-reversible or irreversible depending on the ability of the reaction to respond to changes in E, which, of course, is related to the magnitude of k°. The distinction is important, in particular, for the (correct) application of linear sweep and cyclic voltammetry, and for that reason further discussion of this classification will be postponed until after the introduction of these techniques in Section 6.7.2. 

Thus, in order to obtain a sensitive response in SCV, it is necessary to decrease the pulse time length, t, to transform the response to quasi-reversible or irreversible. This behavior contrasts with that observed in Cyclic Voltammetry for which a current-potential response is obtained even for fast charge transfer reactions (see Sect. 6.4.2). 

Cyclic Square Wave Voltammetry (CSWV) is very useful in determining the reversibility degree and the charge transfer coefficient of a non-Nemstian electrochemical reaction. In order to prove this, the CSWV curves of a quasi-reversible process with Kplane = 0.03 and different values of a have been plotted in Fig. 7.17. In this figure, we have included the net current for the first and second scans (Fig. 7.17b, d, and f) and also the forward, reverse, and net current of a single scan (first or second, Fig. 7.17a, c, e) to help understand the observed response. 

Mechanistic studies can employ CPE if the coupled chemical reactions are slow. Conventional bulk electrolyses require typically 10-30 min for completion, longer than the typical longest time for voltammetric techniques (ca. 20 s maximum for cyclic voltammetry, CV, ca. 8 s for polarography, etc.). This is important to recall when comparing CPE with voltammetry data. An electrode reaction that is chemically reversible in a slow CV experiment may be irreversible in bulk electrolysis if the electrode product has a half-life of, e.g., a minute or two. Conversely, an electron transfer that is quasi- or irreversible in a relatively fast voltammetric experiment may be electrochemically reversible in the long timescale of bulk electrolysis. 

Likewise, Komorsky-Lovric et al. investigated the behavior of lutetium bisphtha-locyanine with the voltammetry of microparticles [108]. This solid-state reaction (which may be studied with either square-wave or cyclic voltammetry) was shown to proceed via the simultaneous insertion/expulsion of anion ions. The oxidation was found to have quasi-reversible characteristics in electrolyte solutions containing perchlorate, nitrate, and chloride, whereas bromide and thiocyanate... 

With faster scan cyclic voltammetry, a new two-electron anodic peak was detected, at more negative potentials, for the first stage of the oxidation process, with an accompanying cathodic peak on the reverse scan (11). The ratio of the forward to the reverse peak currents increased towards unity as the scan rate was raised to —200 V s 1 (Fig. 15). This behavior was attributed to the initial two-electron process being accompanied by a fairly rapid follow-up chemical reaction and was successfully analyzed in terms of an EqCi process (quasi-reversible electron transfer followed by a first-order irreversible chemical process), with a rate constant for the chemical step, k, = 250 s 1. 

This equation is often used to determine the formal potential of a given redox system with the help of cyclic voltammetry. However, the assumption that mid-peak potential is equal to formal potential holds only for a reversible electrode reaction. The diagnostic criteria and characteristics of cyclic voltammetric responses for solution systems undergoing reversible, quasi-reversible, or irreversible heterogeneous electron-transfer process are discussed, for example in Ref [9c]. An electro-chemically reversible process implies that the anodic to cathodic peak current ratio, lpa/- pc equal to 1 and fipc — pa is 2.218RT/nF, which at 298 K is equal to 57/n mV and is independent of the scan rate. For a diffusion-controlled reduction process, Ip should be proportional to the square root of the scan rate v, according to the Randles-Sevcik equation [10] ... 

Yeh and Kuwana " were the first to report on the electrochemistry of cytochrome c at doped metal oxide semiconductor electrodes. A nearly reversible electrode reaction was indicated by the cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry of cytochrome c at tin-doped indium oxide electrodes. Except for the calculated diffusion coefficient, all of the characteristics of the electrochemistry of cytochrome c at this electrode indicated that the electrode reaction was well-behaved. A value of 0.5 x 10" cmVs was determined for the diffusion coefficient which, like previously determined values at mercury, is lower than the value obtained by nonelectrochemical methods (i.e., 1.1 X 10 cm /s " " ). The electrochemical response of cytochrome c at tin oxide semiconductor electrodes was reported to be quasi-reversible, although no details were given. " ... 

In a recent report, it was demonstrated that adsorption of 4,4 -bipyridine on platinum led to quasi-reversible rates of electron transfer with cytochrome c as evidenced by cyclic voltammetry. However, the concentration of 4,4 -bipyridine required to produce this electrochemical response was five times that which is required at gold electrodes. This difference was ascribed to the difference in the tendency of 4,4 -bipyridine to adsorb at gold and platinum electrodes. These results indicate that the use of 4,4 -bipyridine may be applicable to other solid electrodes as well for the study of cytochrome c electron transfer reactions. 

In a study of the cathodic reduction of cyclo-octatetraene in DMF and DMSO, Allendoerfer and Rieger used cyclic voltammetry and a.c. polarography to show that the reduction to the radical anion is quasi-reversible with a rate constant, ky, equal to 8.5 x 10" cm s at 25°C. The heat of activation was found to be 7.7 kcal mol" and the small values of a which were observed were interpreted in terms of the transition state at the equilibrium potential resembling the product radical anion more closely than it resembles the reactant molecule. The transition state is therefore presumably planar, as is the radical anion. This conclusion is supported by the similarity of the experimental value for the free energy of activation to the literature derived values for the free energy of activation in the bond isomerisation reaction of cyclo-octatetraene. 

In contrast to classical cyclic voltammograms, AC-cyclic voltammograms have a clear baseline, which is advantageous for quantitative measurements. By extending AC linear sweep voltaimnetry by a reverse scan, AC cyclic voltammetry is obtained. If the surface concentrations of the electroactive species are the same at the same potential for forward and reverse scans, the peaks for forward and reverse scans are expected to be identical. If the DC process is not fully reversible, the surface concentrations of the electroactive species are different at a given DC potential for forward and reverse scans— that is, for quasi-reversible systems a displacement of the jjeaks for forward and reverse scan can be observed. This displacement can be used to derive kinetic parameters of the electrode reaction. For instance, the derivation (1, p. 393] (or Eq. 5-33) for sluggish one-step heterogeneous quasireversible and/or... 

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