Concentration and electrode material dependence of the voltammetric response of iodide on platinum, glassy carbon and boron-doped diamond in the room temperature ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide

By Bentley, Cameron L.; Bond, Alan M.; Hollenkamp, Anthony F.; Mahon, Peter J. & Zhang, Jie
Published in Electrochimica Acta NULL 2013

Abstract

The electro-oxidation of iodide has been investigated as a function of concentration using steady-state microelectrode voltammetry, transient cyclic voltammetry and linear-sweep semi-integral voltammetry on platinum, glassy carbon and boron-doped diamond electrodes in the room temperature ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide. Two oxidation processes are observed on all of the investigated electrode materials, with the first being assigned to the oxidation of iodide to triiodide (confirmed by UV/visible spectroscopy) and the second being attributed to the oxidation of triiodide to iodine. Iodide oxidation is kinetically more facile on platinum compared to glassy carbon or boron-doped diamond. At elevated bulk iodide concentrations, the nucleation and growth of sparingly soluble electrogenerated iodine at the electrode surface was observed and imaged in situ using optical microscopy. The diffusion coefficient of iodide was determined to be 2.59 (±0.04) X 10-7 cm2 s-1 and independent of the bulk concentration of iodide. The steady-state iodide oxidation current measured at a platinum microelectrode was found to be a linear function of iodide concentration, as expected if there are no contributions from non-Stokesian mass-transport processes (electron hopping and/or Grotthuss-type exchange) under the investigated conditions.

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