Potential shifts at electrodes coated with ion-exchange polymeric films

Voltammetry at electrodes modified with ion-exchange polymers, named “ion exchange voltammetry”, has been recently developed for characterizing and determining quantitatively ionic electroactive analytes preconcentrated at the electrode surface. Like for other voltammetric techniques, characterization is based on the position of the response on the potential scale, but an appreciable difference is frequently observed between the formal half-wave potential for redox couples incorporated within ion-exchange polymeric films and those for the same redox couples in solution as measured at bare electrodes. Such a difference has been rationalized here by a generalized equation, inferred from a suitable elaboration of the Nernst equation, whose validity has been tested by a thorough investigation performed at glassy carbon electrodes modified with either cationic (Nafion) or anionic (Tosflex) polymeric films. With this purpose, the effect of both charge and concentration of the analyte and of the loading counterion, this last introduced as the cation or anion of the supporting electrolyte, of the ion-exchange selectivity coefficients of the redox partners and of their stoichiometric coefficients, as well as of the number of electrons involved in the charge transfer has been evaluated. The results obtained agree quite well with theoretical expectations and indicate that the potential shifts found are mainly conditioned by both charge and concentration of the counterion from the supporting electrolyte and by the ratio of the ion-exchange equilibrium constants for the two redox partners involved. Other parameters considered have no influence on the potential shift or lead to negligible effects, provided that the quantities of the redox partners incorporated within the ion-exchange coating represents less than 5% of the film capacity. Again in agreement with theoretical expectations, positive shifts are found for increasing supporting electrolyte concentrations when cationic redox species incorporated within cationic films are involved, while the opposite effect is found for anionic redox species incorporated within anionic films.