An Application of Chemical Oscillation: Distinguishing Two Isomers between Cyclohexane-1,3-dione and 1,4-cyclohexanedione

Abstract

In the analytical field, previous applications of chemical oscillation focused on quantitative analysis. We report in this paper a novel qualitative method electrochemically distinguishing two positional isomers by utilizing their perturbation effects on a catalyzed Briggs–Rauscher (BR) oscillation. The catalyst in the system is a macrocyclic nickel (II) complex NiL(ClO4)2, where the ligand L in the complex is 5,7,7,12,14,14-hexemethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradeca-4,11-diene. The experimental results indicated that addition of cyclohexane-1,3-dione (1,3-CHD) or 1,4-cyclohexanedione (1,4-CHD) could affect the profiles of potentiometric oscillations, but their changes in the profiles are greatly different. When 1,3-CHD was injected into the oscillating system, there was an initial spiking of the oscillations, accompanying by quenching of oscillations before the regeneration of oscillations. While 1,4-CHD was injected into the dynamic mixture, the oscillatory system responded to the perturbation with only slight decrease followed by a sharp increase in the potential, before it resumed to its normal oscillation state. The perturbation of 1,3-CHD involves inhibition time, whereas the perturbation of 1,4-CHD does not. Hence these two positional isomers could be distinguished by using their different perturbation effects on a BR dynamic system in the range of 9.0×10−4 to 8.0×10−3M. Our assumption is that, perturbation of 1,3-CHD on the oscillating system involves a radical oxidization process to produce carboxylic acid, whereas perturbation of 1,4-CHD assumes idiodation and elimination steps to form 1,4-benzoquinone. Such different perturbation mechanisms are responsible for the difference in potentiometric oscillation profiles change. This hypothesis was confirmed by products analysis by FTIR and UV spectra.