Medium effect in the electroreduction of nitromesitylene

Abstract

One-electron reduction of nitromesitylene ★★ ★★ Nitromesitylene = 2,4,6-trimethylnitrobenzene to the corresponding radical anion has been studied at a hanging mercury drop electrode in various perchlorate salt solutions in five organic solvents: dimethylsulfoxide, dimethylacetamide, propylene carbonate, hexamethylphosphoramide and N-methylformamide. Standard redox potentials, diffusion coefficients, standard rate constants and transfer coefficients have been evaluated from cyclic voltammetry measurements. The results obtained are compared with the literature data for dimethylformamide and acetonitrile solutions. The standard rate constants were found to depend on the cation of the supporting electrolyte as well as on the solvent. It is shown that the rate constants corrected for both ion-pair formation and the double layer effect cannot be described by classical theories of heterogeneous electron transfer. It is shown that the dynamic dielectric properties of the solvent, described by the dielectric relaxation time, influence the rate of the heterogeneous charge transfer. The greater the dielectric relaxation time of the solvent, the smaller is the reaction rate.