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Carbon Dioxide Production in the Oxidation of Organic Acids by Cerium(IV) under Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditions

KARA BUTLER, OLIVER STEINBOCK,* BETTINA STEINBOCK,* NAR S. DALAL Florida State University, Department of Chemistry, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-3006 Received 16 March 1998; accepted 2 June 1998

ABSTRACT: The stoichiometry of CO2 production during the ceric oxidation of various organic acids is measured under conditions with organic acid excess. Measurements utilize a photo-

metric methodology. For anaerobic conditions stoichiometries [CO2]produced : [Ce(IV)]reduced of about 0 (), 0.5 (e.g., glyoxylic acid), and 1.0 () are found. Oxalic acid

showed an -induced decrease of CO2 production, while other compounds such as ma-

lonic acid increased the amount of produced CO2 or showed no changes (e.g., ). In the case of the stoichiometry is increased from about 0.5 to 2.0 due to the presence of molecular oxygen. The results are discussed on the basis of simple reaction mech- anisms demonstrating that useful information on reaction pathways and intermediates can be extracted from these simple measurements. ᭧ 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 30: 899–902, 1998

The study of oxidation of relatively low molecular and involve numerous organic acids and radicals as weight carbonic acids by metal has been an active intermediates [4,7]. A common characteristic, how- area of kinetics [1]. In particular the oxidation of ma- ever, is that most organic acids are oxidized to lonic acid (CH2(COOH)2) and similar compounds by dioxide. Hence, the determination of the stoichiometry

Ce(IV) in acidic solution have caught remarkable at- between produced CO2 and reduced metal ions for the tention [2±5], since these reactions coincide with the overall reaction mechanism reveals valuable infor- organic subset of the self-organizing Belousov±Zha- mation. A text book example is the ceric oxidation of botinsky (BZ) reaction [6]. Despite these efforts, the malonic acid, where the overall reaction is written as corresponding reaction mechanisms are not fully un- [8]: derstood, because some of them are highly complex ϩ ϩ CH22 (COOH) 6 Ce(IV) 2HO 2 !: ϩ ϩ ϩ ϩ *Present address: Otto-von-Guericke-UniversitaÈt, Institut fuÈr HCOOH 6 Ce(III) 2CO2 6 H . (R1) Experimentelle Physik, UniversitaÈtsplatz 2, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany Correspondence to: O. Steinbock While measurements of the overall CO2 stoichiometry Contract grant Sponsor: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft are fairly frequent in the literature [9], we are not Contract grant Sponsor: Florida State University Contract grant Sponsor: NATO Scienti®c Affairs Division aware of systematic data on the CO2 production from short ᭧ 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0538-8066/98/120899-04 oxidation experiments with large excess organic acid standard long JCK(Wiley) LEFT BATCH

900 BUTLER ET AL. in which dissolved oxygen is explicitly considered. periment the setup was calibrated by measuring the

Under reaction conditions in which the organic acid is CO2 production of a 25 mM NaHCO3 solution which in excess, it can be assumed that only a small number was acidi®ed by injecting 1 ml concentrated H2SO4. of intermediates are formed. In other words, the rele- All oxidation reactions were carried out in 1.0 M Ϯ Њ vant reaction mechanism is minimized to a few ªstart- H2SO4 at25.0 0.5 C . Typical reactant concentra- ϭ ϭ ingº reactions of the complex overall mechanism. tions were:[organic acid]0 0.1 M and [Ce(IV)]0 ϫ Ϫ3 Most oxidation reactions between an organic acid RH 1.9 10 M. The Ce(IV)(SO4)2 stock solutions were ϩn and a metal M (e.g., Ce(IV) start with the for- titrated with Fe(NH4)(SO4)2 using ferroin as an indi- mation of an organic radical Rؒ (e.g., the malonyl rad- cator. The reaction solution (typical volume: 25±30 ical)[1,2,7]: ml) was equilibrated with either nitrogen or oxygen for 40 min prior to any measurement. Depending on the reaction conditions nitrogen or oxygen were also (Mϩn ϩ RH : Mϩ(nϪ1) ϩ Rؒ ϩ Hϩ . (R2 used as carrier gases for transfering the produced CO2 from the reaction vessel into the phenol red solution. The following reactions of the radical Rؒ leading to For simplicity, we will denote reactions carried out the ®rst stable intermediate determine the stoichiom- with oxygen-saturated solutions as aerobic reactions. ϭ ϩn ϭ etryf [CO2 ] produced : [M ] reduced between the Results for the stoichiometric value f amounts of produced CO2 and reduced metal ions in [CO2]produced : [Ce(IV)]reduced obtained under anaerobic excess of organic acid. In this report the stoichiometry and aerobic reaction conditions are summarized in Ta- f is measured for ten organic compounds (57 Ͻ ble I. For anaerobic reaction conditions six of the or- Ͻ Mr 183) under anaerobic as well as aerobic reaction ganic acids had a stoichiometry f of approximately conditions. Cerium(IV) is used as the oxidizing agent. 1:2. Exceptions found are (i) oxalic acid which pro-

Measurements are performed on the basis of a pho- duces one mole of CO2 in the reaction with one mole tometric methodology [10]. The data obtained reveal of Ce(IV) and (ii) malonic acid which showed no sig- interesting insights into the chemistry of the involved ni®cant CO2 production. In addition, citric acid gave radicals and allow to some extent predictions on the rise to a surprising stoichiometry of approximately identity of relevant intermediates. It is therefore felt 0.35. For comparison, we also studied the oxidation of that the presented approach is a useful aid for comple- the diketone glyoxal, which is obviously not likely to menting other analytical techniques (e.g., NMR or produce any carbon dioxide. Notice, that for anaerobic EPR) that are sometimes dif®cult to apply. reaction conditions the results for malonic acid and All chemicals were obtained commercially (analyt- glyoxal are identical. ical grade) and used as received. Cerium(IV) sulfate, The comparison between results obtained under an- oxalic acid dihydrate, glyoxylic acid monohydrate, aerobic and aerobic reaction conditions reveals inter- mesoxalic acid disodium , tartronic acid, L (Ϫ) esting differences for four of the organic acids (oxalic, , malonic acid, and glyoxal solution were mesoxalic, malonic, and citric acid). Oxalic acid de- obtained from Fluka. Chemicals purchased from Fluka creases its CO2 production by a factor of two, while include: , sodium hydroxide (N/10) solu- mesoxalic acid shows a large increase by a factor of tion, and sulfuric acid (10 N). Miscellaneous chemi- about four. Malonic acid, the classic organic substrate cals include: dihydroxy tartaric cid (Sigma), phenol of the Belousouv±Zhabotinsky reaction, and citric red sodium salt (Aldrich), ferrous ammonium sulfate acid produce under the given aerobic reaction condi- solution (0.1 N; LabChem), and citric acid (Mallinck- tions carbon dioxide with a stoichiometry of approx- rodt). All stock solutions were prepared from double- imately f ϭ 1 : 2. The organic compounds glyoxylic distilled water. acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, and glyoxal showed no With minor modi®cations the experimental setup is signi®cant dependence of the stoichiometry on the based on the earlier reported by Maxon and Johnson oxygen content of the reaction solution. [10]. The key idea of this approach is to transfer the The presented results reveal three major stoichi- produced carbon dioxide from the sample into a basic ometry values for the production of carbon dioxide: phenol red solution (typically 200 ml: [phenol red] ϭ f ϭ 0.0, 0.5, and 1.0. The value f ϭ 2 , found for me- 10Ϫ5 M, [NaOH] ϭ 10Ϫ4 M). According to the equi- soxalic acid, is only realized under aerobic reaction librium between gaseous carbon dioxide and aqueous conditions. What are the underlying reaction mecha- bicarbonate ion, the in¯ux of CO2 gives rise to a pH nisms, which can give rise to these stoichiometries? change which is detected spectrophotometrically via As discussed in the Introduction, all of the studied re- the absorbance of phenol red. The detection limit for actions are likely to start with the formation of a rad- short the system was about 2.2 mg CO2. Prior to each ex- ical Rؒ (compare, R1). In the absence of molecular standard long JCK(Wiley) RIGHT BATCH

CARBON DIOXIDE PRODUCTION 901

ϭ Table I Stoichiometric Ratios f [CO2]produced/[Ce(IV)]reduced under Anaerobic and Aerobic Reaction Conditions Molecular Formula f (anaerobic) f (aerobic) Oxalic acid HOOCCOOH 1.03 Ϯ 0.05 0.55 Ϯ 0.05 Glyoxylic acid HCOCOOH 0.51 Ϯ 0.05 0.45 Ϯ 0.05 Mesoxalic acid HOOCCOCOOH 0.55 Ϯ 0.05 1.97 Ϯ 0.1 Tartaric acid HOOCCH(OH)CH(OH)COOH 0.45 Ϯ 0.05 0.43 Ϯ 0.05 Ϯ Ϯ Dihydroxy tartaric acid HOOCC(OH)2C(OH)2COOH 0.48 0.05 0.51 0.05 Tartronic acid HOOCHC(OH)COOH 0.49 Ϯ 0.05 0.46 Ϯ 0.05 Ϯ Ϯ Malic acid HOOCHC(OH)CH2COOH 0.43 0.05 0.43 0.05 Ϯ Ϯ Citric acid HOOCCH2C(OH)(COOH)CH2COOH 0.35 0.05 0.50 0.05 Ͻ Ϯ Malonic acid HOOCCH2COOH 0.1 0.48 0.05 Glyoxal HCOCHO Ͻ0.1 Ͻ0.1

The stoichiometry f of carbon dioxide production in the ceric oxidation of small organic compounds with respect to the amount of reduced Ce(IV). Notice, that the initial amount of Ce(IV) is reduced completely, since the organic compound is in excess. Aerobic conditions correspond to an initial oxygen concentration of approximately 1.2 mM (near saturation) and oxygen is also delivered during the entire course of the reaction.

:! ϩ ؒ oxygen, the following reaction scenarios are capable 2 COCOOH HO2 HCOCOOH ϩ ϩ of generating the observed major stoichiometries. HCOOH CO2 , (R5b) In the simplest case, a radical recombination pro- and is obviously in good agreement with the measured cess takes place that produces a stable intermediate R2: stoichiometry of f ϭ 0.51. ϩ !: A different reaction mechanism could be realized (RؒؒR R2 . (R3 in the case of the ceric oxidation of oxalic acid, where the stoichiometry is measured withf Ϸ 1.0 . One pos- Notice, that the stable product R2 could in principle react further with the oxidized metal ion, but would sible explanation could be based on the reaction do this to no signi®cant extent, since the organic acid scheme R4a/R4b withm ϭ 2 . An alternative way to RH is in large excess under the given experimental describe this reaction, however, is to assume that the ؒ conditions. The resulting stoichiometry is therefore primary radical R splits off CO2 directly and forms :f ϭ 0, as found for malonic acid. Indeed, Gao et al. a second radical species Sؒ [3] recently identi®ed R in the case of malonic acid ϩ :!ؒؒ 2 as 1,1,2,2-ethanetetracarbonic acid. R S CO2 , (R6a) The stoichiometry of 0.5 is one realization of the (Sؒؒϩ S !: S . (R6b following reaction scheme: 2 ؒ ϩ !: In the case of oxalic acid, S would be the radical (RؒؒR P1 , (R4a COOH and S2 oxalic acid itselfÐa mechanismؒ !: ϩ P122P m CO , (R4b) which is also in good agreement with the stoichio- metric ratio of 2 between oxalic acid and Ce(IV). An where m is a positive integer. In this scenario an un- additional reaction which could be of importance for stable intermediate P1 is formed by radical recombi- the Ce(IV)/oxalic acid system involves the direct ox- nation which then splits off m carbon dioxide mole- idation of the radical [12]. cules. The corresponding stoichiometry is therefore ϭ ϩ !: ϩ ϩ ϩ (f m/2. Notice, that the process (R4b) might as well Ce(IV) Sؒ Ce(III) CO2 H . (R6c form more than one stable fragment, with one frag- ment being possibly the initial organic acid RH. In this The rate constant of this reaction has been reported as ϭ ϫ 6 Ϫ1 Ϫ113 case, the system performs a classic disproportionation. k6c 1 10 M s . The reactions R6b and R6c The oxidation of glyoxylic acid under anaerobic re- might coexist and changes in their relative rates would action conditions [11] is a simple example for this be- not lead to differences in the stoichiometry of CO2 havior production. For a reliable classi®cation of oxalic acid to either the mechanism R5a/R5b or R6a/R6b/R6c ad- HCOCOOH ϩ Ce(IV) !: ؒCOCOOH ditional information on the involved radical(s) is nec- short ϩ Ce(III) ϩ Hϩ , (R5a) essary. standard long JCK(Wiley) LEFT BATCH

902 BUTLER ET AL.

Although it is well-known that molecular oxygen under excess organic acid conditions allows to distin- can in¯uence the kinetics of the oxidation of organic guish between different reaction schemes and to ®nd acids, only little data is available on details of the un- unusual behavior that deserves thorough investiga- derlying complex reaction mechanisms. The presented tions. The presented results also reemphasize that mo- changes of stoichiometry (Table I) from anaerobic to lecular oxygen acts not necessarily as a simple catalyst aerobic reaction conditions should apply additional but introduces oxygen-speci®c reaction pathways and data to elucidate this problem. In the case of the aer- intermediates. obic oxidation of malonic acid an increase of the stoi- chiometry from about zero to approximately 0.5 is ob- served. This change can be explained in terms of the This research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungs- following two reactions, which are a subset of standard gemeinschaft, the Florida State Univesity, and the NATO autooxidation mechanisms [1,2]: Scienti®c Affairs Division.

ϩ !: (RؒؒO2 ROO , (R7a ϩ !: ϩ ϩ BIBLIOGRAPHY (ROOؒؒROO Qi22qCO O . (R7b

-W. H. Richardson, in Organic Chemistry, A. T. Blom .1 ؒ The peroxy radical ROO , which was recently iden- quist, Ed., Academic Press, New York, 1965, Vol. 5, K. ti®ed for the ceric oxidation of malonic acid [4], un- B. Wiberg, Ed., Part A, Chap. IV, pp. 244. dergoes radical recombination (R7b) and splits off q 2. J.-J. Jwo and R. M. Noyes, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 97, 5422 molecules of carbon dioxide. For malonic acid q is (1975). found to be approximately one (cf.; Table I). Conse- 3. Y. Gao, H.-D. FoÈrsterling, Z. Noszticzius, B. Meyer, J. quently, this result suggest that the stable fragments Phys. Chem., 98, 8377 (1994); A. Sirimungkala, H.-D. FoÈrsterling, Z. Noszticzius, J. Phys. Chem., 100, 3051 Qi cannot be tartronic acid (HC(OH)(COOH)2) and (1996). mesoxalic acid (CO(COOH)2), since in this case one would ®ndf ϭ q ϭ 0 . In the framework of R7b, 4. B. Neumann, S. C. MuÈller, M. J. B. Hauser, O. Stein- however, it seems reasonable to conclude that either bock, R. H. Simoyi, N. S. Dalal, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 117, 6372 (1995). tartronic acid and glyoxylic acid (HCOCOOH) or 5. B. Neumann, O. Steinbock, S. C. MuÈller, and N. S. mesoxalic acid and hydroxyacetic acid (H2C Dalal, J. Phys. Chem., A101, 2743 (1997). (OH)COOH) are produced, because both product 6. R. J. Field and M. Burger, Eds., Oscillations and Trav- pairs correspond to a q value of 1 (i.e.;f ϭ 0.5 ). eling Waves in Chemical Systems, Wiley-Interscience, The interesting oxygen-dependent increase of stoi- New York, 1985; for oxygen effects in the Belousov± chiometry found for citric acid and especially mesox- Zhabotinsky reaction see, e.g.: P. Ruoff, and R. M. alic acid (anaerobic: 0.55; aerobic: 1.97) illustrates the Noyes, J. Phys. Chem., 93, 7394 (1989); R. M. Taylor, complexity of the studied oxidation reactions. One B. R. Johnson, and S. K. Scott, J. Chem. Soc., Faraday possibility to summarize the reaction of mesoxalic Trans., 94, 1029 (1998). acid (MOA) in the presence of oxygen is as follows: 7. S. Barkin, M. Bixon, R. M. Noyes, and K. Bar Eli, Int. J. Chem. Kinet., 10, 619 (1978). 8. D. C. Harris, in Quantitative Chemical Analysis, 4th ed., 2 Ce(IV) ϩ 2 MOA !: 2 Ce(III) W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, 1995. ϩ ϩ ϩ ϩ 2H 4CO2 HC(O)HCO. (R8) 9. H.-D. FoÈrsterling, R. Pachl, and H. Schreiber, Z. Natur- forsch, 42a, 963 (1987). However, the presented results require further studies, 10. W. D. Maxon and M. Johnson, Anal. Chem., 24, 1541 preferably utilizing EPR spectroscopy and analytical (1952). methods, such as HPLC. Also, the oxygen-induced de- 11. For a recent kinetic study on glyoxylic acid including EPR experiments see: B. Neumann, O. Steinbock, S. C. crease of CO production observed in the ceric oxi- 2 MuÈller, and N. S. Dalal, J. Phys. Chem., 100, 12342 dation of oxalic acid is an intriguing ®nding that de- (1996). serves further experimentation. Although these 12. R. J. Field and P. M. Boyd, J. Phys. Chem., 89, 3707 reactions are dif®cult to explain at this point of our (1985). investigations, they stress the usefulness of the pre- 13. J. D. Ellis, M. Green, G. Sykes, G. V. Buxton, and R. sented approach: The analysis of CO2 stoichiometry M. Sellers, J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans., 1724 (1973).

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