Quasi-zero order kinetics

We recall that the current is a very sensitive measure of the rate of an electrochemical reaction. It is therefore quite easy to determine the current-potential relationship without causing a significant change in the concentration of either reactants or products. Thus, measurements in electrode kinetics are conducted effectively under quasi-zero-order kinetic conditions. It would be wrong to infer from this that electrode reactions are independent of concentration. To determine the concentration dependence (i.e., the reaction order), one must obtain a series of HE or //ri plots and derive from them plots of log i versus logC. at different potentials, as shown in Fig. IF. The slopes in Fig. lF(b) yield the parameter p since p = (alog i/alogC.) is measured at constant potential E. Here, and in all further equations, we shall assume that T, P, and the concentration of all other species in solution are kept constant, to permit us to write the equations in a more concise form. 

Kinetic Considerations. The reaction kinetics are masked by a desorption process as shown below and are further complicated by rate deactivation. The independence of the 400-sec rate on reactant mole ratio is not indicative of zero-order kinetics but results because of the nature of the particular kinetic, desorption, and rate decay relationships under these conditions. It would not be expected to be more generally observed under widely varying conditions. The initial rate behavior is considered more indicative of the intrinsic kinetics of the system and is consistent with a model involving competitive adsorption between the two reactants with the olefin being more strongly adsorbed. Such kinetic behavior is consistent with that reported by Venuto (16). Kinetic analysis depends on the assumption that quasi-steady state behavior holds for the rate during rate decay and that the exponential decay extrapolation is valid as time approaches zero. Detailed quantification of the intrinsic kinetics was not attempted in this work. 

The magnitudes of the maximum forward and backward rates, the position in the curve where AG and v are zero, the slope of the quasi-linear region and the curvature, are properties that depend on the magnitude of the kinetic constants and the sum concentration of substrate and product. We shall illustrate this for the case of Eqn. 18. As a consequence of its general appearance, a point of inflection occurs in the plot of reaction rate versus free-energy difference. In such an inflection point the second order derivative of i> with respect to AG equals zero. Writing the reaction rate as a Taylor series around that inflection point one finds ... 

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