Electrochemical studies of redox probes in self-organized lyotropic liquid crystalline systems

Abstract

Lyotropic liquid crystalline phases formed by surfactants are of special importance due to their close resemblance to biological systems. The redox reactions in such ordered media are of fundamental interest in understanding several complex processes occurring in the biological media, where the former can act as model systems. In this work, we have carried out the redox reactions of benzoquinone|hydroquinone, methyl viologen and ferrocenemethanol probes in a lyotropic hexagonal columnar phase (H1 phase) using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopic studies. The liquid crystalline phase we have studied is made up of the non-ionic surfactant, Triton X-100 and water. Polarizing optical microscopic examination confirmed that the columnar hexagonal phase is retained even after the addition of redox probe as well as the supporting electrolyte. Our studies show a significant shift in the half-peak potentials of the redox probes in the H1 phase as compared to the solvent phase. The diffusion coefficient values for different redox probes in the H1 phase were also found to be significantly reduced when compared to the corresponding solvent media.