Single-cell electron transfer rates

McLean JS, Wanger G, Gorby YA, Wainstein M, McQuaid J, Ishii SI, Bretschger O, Beyenal H, Nealson KH. Quantification of electron transfer rates to a solid phase electron acceptor through the stages of biofihn formation from single cells to multicellular communities. Environ Sci Technol 2010 44 2721-2727. 

The transfer of a single electron between two chemical entities is the simplest of oxidation-reduction processes, but it is of central importance in vast areas of chemistry. Electron transfer processes constitute the fundamental steps in biological utilization of oxygen, in electrical conductivity, in oxidation reduction reactions of organic and inorganic substrates, in many catalytic processes, in the transduction of the sun s energy by plants and by synthetic solar cells, and so on. The breadth and complexity of the subject is evident from the five volume handbook Electron Transfer in Chemistry (V. Balzani, Ed.), published in 2001. The most fimdamental principles that govern the efficiencies, the yields or the rates of electron-transfer processes are independent of the nature of the substrates. The properties of the substrates do dictate the conditions for apphcability of those fimdamental... 

An investigation of why hydroxide makes the Tollens silver mirror test for aldehydes more sensitive has focused on thermodynamic versus kinetic factors. Electrochemistry tends to rule out the former the electromotive force (emf) of an appropriate cell changes little with pH. Exploring the kinetics, single electron transfer processes were confirmed by addition of a radical trap (TEMPO), which slowed the reaction. Rate measurements point to the rate of the formation of the anion of the gm-diol (i.e. the hydrate anion) as the key parameter affected by added hydroxide, a factor that also explains how the rapidity of the test varies with the structure of the aldehyde. 

In Case study 5.2, we add the complication of a known faradaic reaction to the CV of the blank cell. Ferricyanide is a well-known, relatively stable iron complex with experimentally observable, reversible electrochemical behavior. For simplicity, in this chapter, we use ferricyanide when we refer to potassium ferricyanide. Ferricyanide follows a single, one-electron reduction to ferrocyanide and has been used as an educational tool for electrochemistry. In particular, two articles cover the primary analyses for CV using ferricyanide under reversible conditions [22, 23], Here, we follow the criteria outlined in the study by Kissinger and Heineman and use the data as a tool to understand biofilm CVs. We evaluate the scan rate dependence, electrode material and addition of rotation (to control mass transfer) and estimate some diagnostic parameters listed in Table 5.2. Figure 5.7 shows a picture of the fully assembled electrochemical cell with the yellow-colored solution containing ferricyanide. It was in this cell that all the ferricyanide results were obtained. 

In this section, we derive a general expression to describe activation polarization losses at a given electrode, known as the Butler-Volmer (BV) kinetic model. The BV model is not the only (or necessarily the most appropriate) model to describe a particular electrochemical reaction process. Nevertheless, it is a classical treatment of electrode kinetics that is widely applied to study and model a majority of the electrode kinetics of fuel cells. The BV model describes an electrochemical process limited by the charge transfer of electrons, which is appropriate for the ORR, and in most cases the HOR with pure hydrogen. The fundamental assumption of the BV kinetic model is that the reaction is rate hmited by a single electron transfer step, which may not actually be true. Some reactions may have two or more intermediate charge transfer reactions that compete in parallel or another intermediate step such as reactant adsorption (Tafel reaction from Chapter 2) may limit the overall reaction rate. Nevertheless, the BV model of an electrochemical reaction is standard fare for a student of electrochemistry and can be used to reasonably fit most fuel cell reaction behavior. 

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