Bi Electrodeposition on Pt in Acidic Medium 2. Hydrodynamic Voltammetry
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CHEMIJA. 2006. Vol. 17. No. 2–3. P. 11–15 © Lietuvos mokslų akademija,Bi electrodeposition 2006 on Pt in acidic medium. 2. Hydrodynamic voltammetry 11 © Lietuvos mokslų akademijos leidykla, 2006 Bi electrodeposition on Pt in acidic medium 2. Hydrodynamic voltammetry Ignas Valsiūnas*, A Pt rotating disc was used to provide some kinetic information concerning the electrodeposition of bismuth from Bi3+ acidic perchlorate solution 1 M Laima Gudavičiūtė, HClO4 + 0.05 M Bi(ClO4)3 at 20 °C. The electrodeposition of Bi from this solution may be interpreted in terms of an irreversible stepwise discharge of Vidmantas Kapočius and Bi3+ ions proceeding either through three successive one-electron steps with the transfer of the first electron as the rate-limiting step or via two successive Antanas Steponavičius steps with the transfer of two electrons in the first stage as the rate-limiting step. From the experimental data the diffusion coefficient D for Bi3+ ion was Institute of Chemistry, calculated and was found to be 4.9 · 10-6 cm2 s-1. A. Goštauto 9, LT-01108 Vilnius, Lithuania Key words: bismuth, electrodeposition, perchlorate solutions, Pt rotating disc electrode, rate-determining steps INTRODUCTION technique was therefore employed in order to elucidate the further information on the mechanism of Bi Although bismuth, as a semimetal, exhibits some unusual electrochemical deposition on a polycrystalline Pt thermal, electrical and magnetic properties that make its (Pt(poly)) electrode. actual and potential applications [1, 2] to be rather wide, its electrochemical reduction from Bi3+ solutions has not EXPERIMENTAL been studied very extensively. Several electrochemical studies have been devoted to the investigation of current- Details on the preparation of perchlorate Bi3+ solution, potential (i/E) characteristics [3–7]. In most investigations on the electrochemical cell, instrumentation and the pre- of Bi deposition only electrolysis in an unstirred Bi3+ paration of a Pt RDE (1 cm2 in area) have been repor- solution under a potential control has been employed, ted previously [7]. The working solution containing 0.05 and these cannot give sufficient information on the M Bi(ClO4)3 + 1 M HClO4 was used for electrochemi- kinetics and mechanism of the process. Such statement cal measurements. The potential of Pt RDE (E) was can be supported by the results of our recent work [7] scanned slowly (5 mV s-1) during rotation. All poten- in which we have shown that the experimental tials in the paper are quoted versus the standard hydro- relationships between the characteristics of cyclic gen electrode (SHE). voltammograms (CVs) and the conditions of electrolysis, including the Bi3+ concentration (c), potential sweep rate THEORETICAL ANALYSIS (v) and the number of cycles (n) during a successive cycling do not completely satisfy the diagnostic criteria For a bare rotating disc electrode, the current measured for a reversible or a totally irreversible electrochemical under non-limiting conditions is related to the kinetic reaction predicted by the cyclic voltammetry (CV) theory and diffusion-controlled currents by the Levich–Kou- [8, 9]. On the basis of these results, it has been suggested tecky (K–L) equation [11]: [7] that charge transfer during the Bi deposition onto a 1/i = 1/i + 1/Bw1/2, (1) Pt electrode should be a more complex process consisting kin of several separate steps. where ikin is the kinetically controlled current in the To the best of our knowledge, there is only one absence of the mass transfer effects and B is the inver- work [10] in which the voltammetric data, under se of the K-L slope at each potential. In the diffusion- hydrodynamically-defined conditions, have been reported controlled region, the limiting current ilim is described for the electrodeposition of Bi. by the following Levich (L) equation [11] : In the present study, which is a continuation of our i = 0.62nFAD2/3cν-1/6w1/2, (2) previous work [7], a rotating disc electrode (RDE) lim where n, D, A, n, c and w are the number of the * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] exchanged electrons, diffusion coefficient (cm2 s-1), 12 Ignas Valsiūnas, Laima Gudavičiūtė, Vidmantas Kapočius and Antanas Steponavičius apparent area of RDE (cm2), kinematic viscosity (cm2 (the symmetry factor) of the rds, A is the electrode s-1), bulk concentration of a reactant (mol cm-3) and surface area. RDE rotation rate (rad s-1), respectively. The kinetic The overall current is current is described by the following equation [11] : -i = n(i –i ) = i – i ,(11) fm bm f b ikin = nFAkf c, (3) where i denotes the overall reaction net current which where k is the potential-dependent forward rate constant f is negative for the reduction reaction, i is the back- and the other variables are as described above. bm ward reaction current of the rds, i and i represent the It is generally agreed [11–13] that if more than one f b forward and backward reaction current of the overall electron is transferred during an electrode reaction, the reaction, respectively. mechanism of such process is usually analyzed using Then, following the considerations in the literature, the following simplifying assumptions: (i) only one elec- e.g. [14], the overall current can be represented as fol- tron is transferred in an elementary step; (ii) one of the lows: elementary steps is much slower than the others and, therefore, is a rate-determining step (rds), the elemen- α η α η -i = i0{exp[(m + c)(F /RT)]-exp[-(n – m - a)(F / tary processes preceding the rds are at quasi-equilib- RT)]} = i [exp(α Fη/RT) – exp(-α Fη/RT)], (12) rium. Then, considering the reduction reaction invol- 0 c,app a,app ving the transfer of n electrons, where i0 is the exchange current at the equilibrium po- tential E , α and a are the cathodic and anodic trans- → eq c a O + ne R (4) α α α fer coefficients of the rds, c,app = m + c and a,app = α the sequence of steps can be described as follows n – m – a are the apparent transfer coefficients, res- α α (see, e. g. [14]): pectively. Obviously, there is c,app + a,app = n and α /α = (m + α )/(n – m – α ), while α + α =1, O + e → A (5a) c,app a,app c a c a 1 which only holds if the same step remains rate-control- A + e → A m steps are in equilibrium (5b) 1 2 ling over the wide range of the η involved [13]. The ………….. stoichiometric number ν* here is assumed to be 1. In A + e → A (5c) m-1 m α α most systems c or a turns out to lie between 0.3 and → Am + e Am+1 rds (5d) 0.7, and it can be approximated to 0.5 in the absence of actual measurements. A + e → A (5e) m+1 m+2 In the case of the overall electrode reaction studied …………… (n – m – 1) steps are in equilibrium 3+ → → Bi + 3e Bi (13) An-1 + e R (5f) α α α α The concentration of A1 at the surface of the elec- n = 3, c,app/ a,app = (m + c)/(3 – m – a). Then, if trode (c1) can be determined from the Nernst equation: the transfer of the 1st electron is the rds, m = 0, and 0 α α α α α E = E1 + (RT/F)ln(c0/c1) (6) c,app/ a,app = c/(3 – a). c is predicted to be equal to α c1 = K1c0exp(-FE/RT), (7) c,app. If the transfer of the 2nd electron is the rds, then 0 α α α α α where E1 is the formal electrode potential of the reac- m = 1, c,app = 1 + c and ac,app/ a,app = (1 + c)/(2 – a). tion of the 1st electron transfer, the constant If the transfer of the 3rd electron is the rds, then m = 0 α α α α α α K1 = exp(FE1 /RT). 2, c,app = 2 + c and c,app/ a,app = (2 + c)/(1 – a). Similarly, For multistep electrode reactions, in the absence of mass-transport limitations and at high overpotentials, η, c = K c exp(-FE/RT) = K K c exp(-2FE/RT) (8) 2 2 1 2 1 0 η particularly, at high c, the cathodic Tafel slope bc = δη δ α cm = Kmcm-1exp(-FE/RT) = Kfc0exp(-mFE/RT), (9) c/ log|i| = 2.303RT/ c,appF. Then, for the overall elec- trode reaction (13) and taking ν* = 1, T = 293K, the where the constant K = exp(FE 0/RT), i = 1, 2,…m, m i following experimental values of b can be predicted: m c m 116, ca. 39 and ca. 23 mV dec-1 for the transfer of the and the constant K = ∏ K = exp[(F/RT) 0]. f i ∑ E i 1st, 2nd and 3rd electron as the rds, respectively. i = 1 = i 1 In general (see, e.g. [13]), most electrode processes, The forward reaction current of the rds, i , can be fm especially those with more than one charge transfer expressed as follows [14]: event, may also involve adsorption and desorption of 0 primary reactants, intermediates and ultimate products. i = 0 c exp[–(α F/RT)(E- E + )] = fm FAk m+1 m c m 1 On the other hand, in general, for such complex elec- α trochemical systems, there is a certain difficulty in a = 0 (K ) c K c exp[-(m + α )(FE/RT)], (10) FAk m+1 m+1 f 0 c making distinction between the overall n value of the electrode reaction (4) and the number of electrons of 0 where k m+1 is the standard reaction rate constant at the rds, usually designed as z because the latter may 0 + α E m 1 of the rds, c is the cathodic transfer coefficient not be readily apparent.