Abstract
DIMETHYLFORMAMIDE and other organic solvents are being increasingly used for the polarography of organic substances and inorganic ions. It has been shown that a mercury pool anode in halide solutions in dimethylformamide provides a stable reference potential1 and that this potential (and that of similar electrodes in other organic solvents2) differs considerably (by about – 0.5 V.) from that of the aqueous calomel electrode1. We have therefore studied the behaviour of iodide and chloride ion at the dropping mercury electrode in dimethylformamide in order to identify the anode reaction and ascertain why it maintains the pool at a stable potential. The results make it clear that some familiar aspects of the solution chemistry of mercury are changed when dimethylformamide is used as solvent.
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References
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Chemical Society, “Stability Constants of Metal-Ion Complexes”, Part 2, Special Publication No. 7.
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GIVEN, P., PEOVER, M. Anodic Reactions of Mercury with Halide Ions in Dimethylformamide. Nature 182, 1226–1227 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1821226a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1821226a0
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