Digital simulation of chronopotentiometric and steady-state voltammetric curves at microelectrodes in the presence of a low concentration of supporting electrolyte

A simulation scheme for the calculation of theoretical chronopotentiograms at microelectrodes in solutions containing low amounts of supporting electrolyte is presented. The scheme allows computation of the changes in the concentration profiles of the substrates, products and the supporting electrolyte ions with time. The electrode potentials that are established after reaching the steady-state, together with the appropriate current intensities, can be used for constructing the steady-state voltammograms. The simulation of the mixed diffusional and migrational transport is based on the Crank-Nicolson method with an exponentially expanding time and space grids. The scheme does not impose any limitations on diffusion coefficients and it can be applied both to simple electrode reactions (one reactant-one product) and more complicated reactions under the assumption that the double-layer thickness is small in comparison to the diffusion layer. Five simple types of electrode reactions and an example of a more complicated scheme were considered. The results obtained demonstrate that the dependence of the steady-state limiting current on the support ratio (csupp.el./csubst) depends not only on the charge of the reactant and the product, but also on the diffusion coefficient ratio of the substrate and product. If the difference between diffusion coefficients is large, the predictions based on simpler theories available in literature can become invalid

Voltammetric investigation of the complexation equilibria in the presence of a low level of supporting electrolyte Part 1: Steady-state current-potential curves for inert complexes

The use of microelectrodes for voltammetric investigations of the complexation equilibria at very low concentrations of supporting electrolyte allows the risk of competitive complexation or contamination to be avoided, makes the activities of the species involved closer to their concentrations (which facilitates comparisons with the spectroscopic results) and finally, allows the concentrations of the species to be varied over a broader range. This paper presents the calculations of the steady-state currents for a wide range of complexes that are inert on the experimental time scale, and reports the influence of the concentration of the electroinactive ionic species on the limiting currents. Also, for a number of cases the variation of halfwave potential with the ligand concentration, resulting from changes in the ohmic drop, is given. It is assumed that only one species (the complex or the uncomplexed form) is electroactive; if this is the complex, it may or may not change the number of ligands. The theoretical results were obtained either employing the Myland-Oldham theory extended in this paper or by digital simulation. The results of calculations show that the magnitude of the changes in the steady-state limiting current on complexation depends on the type of complexation equilibrium, the type of the change in the reactant charge number in the electrode process, and the complex formation constant. In a number of situations migrational effects are negligibly small and no special treatment is necessary, despite the lack of supporting electrolyte. In other cases, where migration is significant, the relations between the measured steady-state limiting current and the complex formation constant ß are given in the form of fitted equations that can be used to obtain ß from appropriate experimental data

Selective knockout of gold active sites

It has long been known that defects on a gold surface play an important role in electrocatalysis, but the precise mechanism has always been unclear. This work indicates that the defect sites provide partially filled d-orbitals that stabilize freeradical intermediates. Strong evidence for this hypothesis is that the sites can be selectively knocked out by treatment with OH• radicals generated by Fenton's reagent. The knockout effect is demonstrated using oxygen reduction, hydrogen reduction, and the redox electrochemistry of hydroquinone