Discreteness-of-charge effects in electrode kinetics. II. The electroreduction of hexamminocobalt(III) cation in the presence of specifically adsorbed nitrate anions

Abstract

The kinetics of electroreduction of the hexamminocobalt(III) cation have been studied at a Hg electrode in aqueous solutions of NaNO3 + NaF and KNO3 + KF with an ionic strength of 0.2 M. The rate of reaction was observed to increase with increasing nitrate ion concentration but was independent of the cation nature. Analysis of the double layer effect for this system indicates that ion pairs formed between the reacting cation and anions of the base electrolyte also participate in the electrode reaction, and that attractive interactions between the reactant and adsorbed anions have a significant influence on the interfacial kinetics.