Products Cited in Publications Worldwide Alternative Method for Immobilization of Molecular Electrocatalyst on Carbon Electrode Surfaces via the Diels-Alder Reaction

Alternative Method for Immobilization of Molecular Electrocatalyst on Carbon Electrode Surfaces via the Diels-Alder Reaction

Ali Abed, Hussain

Abstract

A new method for the surface functionalization of redox active compounds onto carbon electrodes via a cupper catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction has been previously investigated by Leroux et.al, were they showed that under mild conditions and short reaction times, the surface functionalization of substituted with an alkyl chain resulted in high surface coverage on the electrode with good electrical properties. The research presented in this report aims to extend the scope of the Diels-Alder surface functionalization employing other redox active compounds primarily targeting future applications towards heterogenous electrocatalysis. Glassy carbon electrode which, due the large abundance of sp2-hybridized carbons, makes them ideal for Diels-Alder functionalization.The dienophile in the immobilization protocol is a terminal alkynyl ester. Out of the six compounds we initially intended to synthesis we successfully prepared four. For the three synthesised redox active species, electrochemical characterisations were performedfor two of them after surface immobilization, and for one in solution using cyclic voltammetry. The study proved that the surface immobilization was successful with a surface coverage of 2.84 x 10 -11 mol/cm2 for anodic current and 4.49 x 10 -11 mol/cm2 for cathodic current for 1. Compared to the surface coverage reported by Leroux et.al. of (3.31 ± 0.22) x 10 -10 mol/cm2, which is a 10-fold higher than what this study found.The surface coverage for 5 was measuredto 2.36 x 10 -11 mol/cm2 for anodic current and 3.18 x 10 -11 mol/cm2 for the cathodic current. The obtained surface coverage of these compounds were lower than those reported in the published results by Leroux et.al. Further investigation into the surface immobilization procedure is necessary to identify the factors causing the low surface coverage.

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