Reactions At and Across Interfaces

The equilibrium interfaces of fluid systems possess one variant chemical potential less than isolated bulk phases with the same number of components. This is due to the additional condition of heterogeneous equilibrium and follows from Gibbs phase rule. As a result, the equilibrium interface of a binary system is invariant at any given P and T, whereas the interface between the phases a and /3 of a ternary system is (mono-) variant. However, we will see later that for multiphase crystals with coherent boundaries, the situation is more complicated. 

Chemical kinetics concerns the evolution in time of a system which deviates from equilibrium. The acting driving forces are the gradients of thermodynamic potential functions. Before establishing the behavior and kinetic laws of interfaces, we need to understand some basic interface thermodynamics. The equilibrium interface is characterized by equal and opposite fluxes of components (or building elements) in the direction normal to the boundary. Ternary systems already reflect the general 

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To appreciate the impact of SECM on the study of phase transfer kinetics, it is useful to briefly review the basic steps in reactions at solid/liquid interfaces. Processes of dissolution (growth) or desorption (adsorption), which are of interest herein, may be described in terms of some, or all, of the series of events shown in Figure 1. Although somewhat simplistic, this schematic identifies the essential elements in addressing the kinetics of interfacial processes. In one limit, when any of the surface processes in Figure 1 (e.g., the detachment of ions or molecules from an active site, surface diffusion of a species across the surface, or desorption) are slow compared to the mass transport step between the bulk solution and the interface, the reaction is kinetically surface-controlled. In the other limit, if the surface events are fast compared to mass transport, the overall process is in a mass transport-controlled regime. 

Starting at open circuit, when the electrolysis current is gradually increased, the voltage imposed across the system also increases in turn and several simultaneous half-reactions may possibly be observed at one electrode (or both of them). Remember that the currents for each half-reaction at the same interface must be added together. This results in faradic yields that are lower than 100%. When it is possible for several reactions to occur at one of the electrodes, the main half-reaction is the one that would lead to the lowest polarisation in absolute value, for the same individual current When several reactions can be envisaged at both interfaces in the whole system, then the overall reaction which results from the two main half-reactions is the one that requires the lowest imposed voltage. 

Materials with a high surface-to-volume ratio have played important roles in evolution and in our own lives. Extensive surface area provides optimal conditions for chemical transformations to proceed with high reaction rates and high product selectivity. The organization and stability of nanosized structures are controlled by interactions at the molecular scale—chemical, electrical or magnetic—rather than by the mechanical forces that shape the macroscopic world. Our ability to control and use for our benefit all kinds of special properties developed at the extended surface that characterizes the objects of the nanoworld depends on our understanding of phenomena at and across the interfaces. 

The potential dependence of electrochemical rate constants for electron transfer reactions at liquid-liquid interfaces has not yet been studied. Since it has been established that very little of the applied Galvani potential difference occurs across the mixed solvent layer in which the electron transfer reactions are likely to take place, it is not clear if the driving force is affected by the polarization of the interface, and if the apparent electrochemical control of the reaction is not only due to the control of the surface concentrations of the reactants by the applied potential difference. 

In most circumstances, it can be assumed diat die gas-solid reaction proceeds more rapidly diaii die gaseous transport, and dierefore diat local equilibrium exists between die solid and gaseous components at die source and sink. This implies diat die extent and direction of die transport reaction at each end of die temperature gradient may be assessed solely from diermodynamic data, and diat die rate of uansport across die interface between die gas and die solid phases, at bodi reactant and product sites, is not rate-determining. Transport of die gaseous species between die source of atoms and die sink where deposition takes place is die rate-determining process. 

Such a model should take into account at least the following phenomena Mass transfer across gas-liquid interface, mass transfer to exterior particle surface, catalytic reaction, flow and axial mixing of gas phase, and flow and axial mixing of liquid phase. 

Sections 2.1—2.3 give accounts of kinetic and mechanistic features of the three rate-limiting processes (i) diffusion at a surface or in a gas (including the nucleation step), (ii) reaction at an interface, and (iii) diffusion across a barrier phase, [(ii) and (iii) are growth processes.] In any particular reaction, the slowest of these processes will, at any particular instant, control the rate of product formation. (A kinetic analysis of rate measurements must also incorporate an allowance for the geometric factors.)... 

Early studies of ET dynamics at externally biased interfaces were based on conventional cyclic voltammetry employing four-electrode potentiostats [62,67 70,79]. The formal pseudo-first-order electron-transfer rate constants [ket(cms )] were measured on the basis of the Nicholson method [99] and convolution potential sweep voltammetry [79,100] in the presence of an excess of one of the reactant species. The constant composition approximation allows expression of the ET rate constant with the same units as in heterogeneous reaction on solid electrodes. However, any comparison with the expression described in Section II.B requires the transformation to bimolecular units, i.e., M cms . Values of of the order of 1-2 x lO cms (0.05 to O.IM cms ) were reported for Fe(CN)g in the aqueous phase and the redox species Lu(PC)2, Sn(PC)2, TCNQ, and RuTPP(Py)2 in DCE [62,70]. Despite the fact that large potential perturbations across the interface introduce interferences in kinetic analysis [101], these early estimations allowed some preliminary comparisons to established ET models in heterogeneous media. 

The ITIES with an adsorbed monolayer of surfactant has been studied as a model system of the interface between microphases in a bicontinuous microemulsion [39]. This latter system has important applications in electrochemical synthesis and catalysis [88-92]. Quantitative measurements of the kinetics of electrochemical processes in microemulsions are difficult to perform directly, due to uncertainties in the area over which the organic and aqueous reactants contact. The SECM feedback mode allowed the rate of catalytic reduction of tra 5-l,2-dibromocyclohexane in benzonitrile by the Co(I) form of vitamin B12, generated electrochemically in an aqueous phase to be measured as a function of interfacial potential drop and adsorbed surfactants [39]. It was found that the reaction at the ITIES could not be interpreted as a simple second-order process. In the absence of surfactant at the ITIES the overall rate of the interfacial reaction was virtually independent of the potential drop across the interface and a similar rate constant was obtained when a cationic surfactant (didodecyldimethylammonium bromide) was adsorbed at the ITIES. In contrast a threefold decrease in the rate constant was observed when an anionic surfactant (dihexadecyl phosphate) was used. 

To ensure that the detector electrode used in MEMED is a noninvasive probe of the concentration boundary layer that develops adjacent to the droplet, it is usually necessary to employ a small-sized UME (less than 2 /rm diameter). This is essential for amperometric detection protocols, although larger electrodes, up to 50/rm across, can be employed in potentiometric detection mode [73]. A key strength of the technique is that the electrode measures directly the concentration profile of a target species involved in the reaction at the interface, i.e., the spatial distribution of a product or reactant, on the receptor phase side. The shape of this concentration profile is sensitive to the mass transport characteristics for the growing drop, and to the interfacial reaction kinetics. A schematic of the apparatus for MEMED is shown in Fig. 14. 

As mentioned above, the distribution of the various species in the two adjacent phases changes during a potential sweep which induces the transfer of an ion I across the interface when the potential approaches its standard transfer potential. This flux of charges across the interface leads to a measurable current which is recorded as a function of the applied potential. Such curves are called voltammograms and a typical example for the transfer of pilocarpine [229] is shown in Fig. 6, illustrating that cyclic voltammograms produced by reversible ion transfer reactions are similar to those obtained for electron transfer reactions at a metal-electrolyte solution interface. 

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