Facilitated proton transfer reactions via water autoprotolysis across oil|water interfaces. Half-wave potential

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to develop the equations for the half-wave potentials of facilitated proton transfer or protonated species transfer across liquid|liquid interfaces, explicitly considering the water autoprotolysis equilibrium. The main equation developed in this article allows simulating different chemical systems, which are compared to simulated results using a previously developed model (J. Electroanal. Chem. 578 (2005) 159–170). Both the effect of the initial concentration of the weak base and the volume ratio of the aqueous to organic phases on the half-wave potentials are presented. Finally, approximate equations are developed that allow not only to adequately justify the behaviour of the half-wave potentials with the volume ratio and the initial concentration of the weak base, but can also be used as a tool to explain or predict experimental results.