The electrochemical process
Interactions of matter associated with the passage of an electric current depend upon the characteristics of the negatively charged electron. As the basic particle of electricity, the electron has an affinity for positively charged particles of matter, protons, whether in atoms, groups of atoms, or molecules. This affinity is analogous to the chemical affinity that particles exhibit among themselves. In fact, all chemical reactions result from a shift in the electron structure of atoms, and free electrons can combine with particles of matter (reduction) or be released by them (oxidation). The quantitative relationship between the free electrons of an electric current and the particles of a substance in which they cause a reaction is defined by the laws of Faraday (see above History). The substances that take part in electrochemical reactions, called electrolytes or ionic conductors, have been described above.
Electrons are available in large quantities in a relatively free (mobile) state only in substances called electronic conductors, among which metals are the most important. Thus, an electron conductor must be present as a basic component of any system in which electrochemical reactions are to occur. Furthermore, the availability of electrons in a conductor is limited by energy distribution to such an extent that electrochemical reactions take place only in the immediate vicinity of the electronic conductor’s surface—i.e., a few angstroms from the conductor into the solution. These reactions are, therefore, normally considered as occurring at the interface, or common boundary, between an electronic conductor, such as an electrode, and an ionic conductor of electricity, such as an electrolytic solution. Electrochemical reaction will take place, however, only to the extent that electricity can flow through such a system as a whole. To achieve this, it is necessary for the system to form a closed loop, electronically speaking.
To summarize, if at one metal-solution interface electrons are coming out of the metal, reducing a component of the solution, there must exist a second metal-solution interface where electrons are going into the metal in the process of oxidation.
The two electrodes and the ionic conductor in between (e.g., an aqueous solution of some ionized salt) represent an electrochemical cell. The process occurring in the cell as a whole is a redox process with the reduction of one species spatially separated from the oxidation of another one. As a consequence of Faraday’s law, the rates of electrochemical reactions at electrodes (expressed in terms of gram moles per second per square centimetre of electrode surface) are directly proportional to the current density (expressed in amperes per square centimetre)—i.e., current flowing through the cell divided by the electrode surface area.
Sites of electrochemical reactions
Electrochemical reactions take place where the electron conductor meets the ionic conductor—i.e., at the electrode–electrolyte interface. Characteristic of this region, considered to be a surface phase, is the existence of a specific structure of particles and the presence of an electric field of considerable intensity (up to 10,000,000 volts per centimetre) across it; the field is caused by the separation of charges that are present between the two bulk phases in contact. For most purposes the surface phase can be considered as a parallel plate condenser, with one plate on the centre of the ions that have been brought to the electrode, at the distance of their closest approach to it, and with the second plate at the metal surface; between the two plates and acting as a dielectric (i.e., a nonconducting material) are oriented water molecules.
Thermal motion of the positive ions in the solution makes the condenser plate on the electrolyte side of the interface diffuse—i.e., the ions are distributed in a cloudlike way. This condition justifies the division of the potential change between the bulk of metal and the bulk of electrolyte into two parts: first, that between the metal surface and the first ionic layer at the distance of closest approach (called the outer Helmholtz plane, in which the ions are usually surrounded by solvent particles—i.e., are solvated); and second, that between the first ionic layer and the bulk of the solution, the diffuse part of the double layer. The picture is further complicated by the presence of ions in the electrode surface layer in addition to those that are present for electrostatic reasons—i.e., by the force of attraction or repulsion between electric charges. Such electrode surface layer ions are said to be specifically adsorbed on the electrode surface. Since this species of ions is attracted by the surface to a distance closer than the “distance of the closest approach” of ions, further subdivision of the inner part of the electric double layer is justified. Hence, the inner Helmholtz plane is introduced as the plane formed by the centres of specifically adsorbed ions. Adsorption of neutral molecules on the surface can also change the properties of the electric double layer. This change occurs as a consequence of replacing the water molecules, and thus changes that part of the potential (electrical) difference across the double layer that is caused by the adsorbed dipoles (water molecules that have a polarity—i.e., they behave like minute magnets—because of their hydrogen-oxygen structure, making one end of the molecule positive and the other end negative).
The absolute value of electrical potential difference, symbolized in calculation by the Greek letters delta and psi, Δψ, between the bulk of a metal electrode and the bulk of an electrolyte cannot be measured. Instead, the voltage of a special cell, composed of the specific electrode being studied and of an arbitrarily selected reference electrode, is normally measured; the voltage is referred to as the relative electrode potential, E. Of special interest is that state of the electrode at which there is no net charge (in this case, no unbalanced, or extra positive, charge) at the metal side of the double layer. The relative potential at which this state is achieved is characteristic of each metal. This point is termed the potential of zero charge. At that potential, the field across the double layer is due to orientation of water molecules and other dipoles at the surface only.
Most of the knowledge of the detailed structure of the interface between a metal and an electrolyte arises from experimentation with mercury, the only metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures; the double layer structure turns out to have surface tensions that must be measured, and this measurement is difficult with solid metals. By 1970, however, it had been shown that it is possible to measure surface tension changes at the metal-solution interface. Thus, the way to the determination of the double layer structure involving solids was opened.
Substances that are semiconductors can also be employed as electron carriers in electrochemical reactions. Semiconductors are substances which range between serving as insulators at low temperatures and as metallic-type conductors at high temperatures. In the case of semiconductors, however, the electric double layer has a more complex structure inasmuch as the condenser plate at the electrode side of the double layer also becomes diffuse. Thus, the overall potential difference between bulks of the phases in contact comprises also the potential difference between the bulk of the semiconductor and its surface.
Types of electrochemical reactions
There are several types of electrochemical reactions.
Simple redox reactions
A simple redox reaction is one that involves a change in the electrical charge of a charge carrier, usually a simple or complex ion in the solution, by its taking away, an electron from the electrode (reduction), or its giving an electron to the electrode (oxidation). The same carrier may be present in solution in two states of charge. The higher, more positive charge is called the oxidized state, and the lower, less positive charge is called the reduced state. For example, when ferric and ferrous ions are both present in solution in significant quantity, and when electron exchange with the electrode is sufficiently fast, redox equilibrium is established at the electrode, giving it a well-defined potential, or reversible redox potential.
Reactions that produce gases
When hydrogen ions in solution react with electrons ejected from a metal, hydrogen atoms are formed at the surface, where they combine among themselves or with other hydrogen ions and electrons to give gaseous hydrogen molecules. If all the reactions are fast enough, an equilibrium is attained between hydrogen ions and gaseous hydrogen. A metal in contact with solution at which such a situation exists is called the reversible hydrogen electrode, and its electrical potential is arbitrarily taken to be zero; every other electrode can thus be compared with it as it represents the basis for constituting the hydrogen scale of relative electrode potentials. Similarly, negative hydroxyl ions in solution (OH−) can be made to give up electrons to a metal and, in a series of reactions, the final one is the formation of gaseous oxygen. Chlorine is another gaseous product; it evolves upon electrochemical oxidation of chloride ions in concentrated solutions of neutral and acid salts.
Reactions that deposit and dissolve metals
When a metal ion is reduced and discharged as a neutral atom, or species, it tends to build into the metal lattice of the electrode. Thus, metals can be deposited at electrodes. Conversely, if electrons are taken away from the metal electrode by applying positive potentials to it, the metal ions thus formed can cross the double layer of electric charge at the interface, undergo hydration (combination with water), and enter the solution. The metal electrode thus dissolves. Many metals establish well-defined electric potentials when they are in contact with their own ions in solution.
Oxidation and reduction of organic compounds
A reaction of the oxidation and reduction of organic compounds can also be done at electrodes. Such reactions, however, are mostly irreversible in the literal sense that they lead to products that cannot easily be converted back into the original substance. Exceptions are some oxygen- and nitrogen-containing compounds (quinones, amines, and nitrous compounds) that can give fairly well-defined reversible potentials.
Mechanism of charge transfer
The causes of the thermodynamically irreversible behaviour of electrode reactions are found in the nature of the elementary act of charge transfer. Like any chemical reaction, this act is inhibited by the existence of an energy barrier between the oxidized and the reduced state. This barrier implies that the reaction could take place only in the special circumstances when, during the course of numerous interactions with other species (atoms, ions, molecules, etc.) surrounding it, a molecule attains an excited state in which it has an abnormal energy content. In most chemical reactions, this energy content must be sufficient for the species to come into what is called the transition state; the transition state characterizes the top of the energy barrier just before a reaction begins. If such a model is applied to electron transfer at an interface, calculation shows that electron exchange reactions at electrodes would be prohibitively slow, a conclusion at variance with the observed phenomena; quantum mechanical laws, however, govern the motion of electrons, and their inclusion changes the calculations to fit reality. Quantum mechanics require that for fast electron exchange to take place, electrons in a particle outside the double layer (e.g., a hydrated ion at the outer Helmholtz plane) must attain certain well-defined quantized energy levels equal to those in which free electrons exist in the metal. Since such states can be attained by the particle at a lower energy-content than that needed for its transfer over the top of the energy barrier, according to the classical view, this fast process of electron exchange between the electrode and a particle in solution is termed electron tunnelling through the energy barrier.
Whereas the rate of chemical processes, or what may loosely be termed the speed of reaction, can be influenced only by changing the concentrations of reactants or by changing the temperature or both, the rate of electrochemical processes also can be manipulated by changing the electrode potential. Making the electrode more negative increases the number of electrons in the metal ready to tunnel to ions, and hence the rate of the reduction process increases. Conversely, making the potential more positive decreases this rate and increases the number of particles ready to give away electrons, thus increasing the rate of the oxidation process.
It can be deduced that there must exist a direct proportionality between the rate of reaction and the concentration of the reacting species and at the same time an exponential proportionality between the rate of reaction and the electrode potential.
At any electrode potential, both reduction of one species and oxidation of the product of reduction are taking place but at different rates; the rate of each reaction is determined by the respective concentration and by the corresponding effects of potential. The rate of an electrochemical reaction can best be described as the electric current density—i.e., a measure of the quantity of electrons moving in a certain volume of space during a specified unit of time.
The relationships can be represented quantitatively by an equation in which the net, or resulting, current (the difference of the rate of electron ejection across the interface to particles in solution, diminished by the rate at which particles in solution inject electrons into the metal) is equated to the difference of the rates of reduction and oxidation and the variables and constants that relate to these reactions. See equation (1), and other equations below in Calculations at the end of this section. Equation (2), known as the Nernst equation, which can be derived from equation (1), gives the value of the electrode potential when the rate of oxidation exactly equals the rate of reduction. Using this value for the electrode potential, equation (3), called the Butler-Volmer equation, can be derived; it represents the most fundamental relationship in electrodic chemistry.