Voltammetric and Spectroscopic Studies of Charged and Uncharged Diferrocene Derivatives at Regular and Low Ionic Strength Solutions

Abstract

Electroanalytical aspects of voltammetric behavior of diferrocenemethanol, sodium diferrocenemethanolan, (diferrocenyl)methyltrimethylammonium hexafluorophosphate, and 1,2‐diferrocenyloethane were studied. Special attention was paid to the differences in the wave heights caused by the presence and absence of supporting electrolyte. Linear scan voltammetry (LSV) and normal pulse voltammetry (NPV) were employed in the investigation. The differocenes synthesized differ in charge and in the interactions between the two redox centers. They have both iron atoms at the +2 oxidation number. The charged diferrocenes offer not only a good internal potential scale in electroanalysis, as does the uncharged diferrocene, but are also sensitive to ionic strength in the solution. In the absence of supporting electrolyte, no second voltammetric wave was obtained for the (diferrocenyl)methyltrimethylammonium cation. The IR and UV‐VIS spectroscopic characteristic have been done for all diferrocenes studied.

Keywords:

• Diferrocene derivatives
• Model redox system
• Voltammetry
• Microelectrode
• Low ionic strength

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grant 4 T09A 052 24 from KBN, the Polish Committee for Scientific Research and by the Office of Naval Research under grant number N000149810244. The authors thank Barbara Palys for assistance in IR measurements and Wojciech Hyk for helpful discussions.