Experimental and theoretical studies of redox reactions of o-chloranil in aqueous solution

The electrochemical reduction of o-chloranil (OCA) in aqueous solution has been studied experimentally and theoretically. The effects of temperature and pH on various thermodynamic parameters were studied by means of cyclic voltammetry. The pH dependence of the redox activity of OCA in aqueous solution at temperatures in the range 25-40 degrees C was used for the experimental determination of the standard reduction potentials of both the one-proton-two-electron (0.67 V) and two-proton-two-electron (0.79 V) reduction processes. The temperature dependency of the equilibrium constants of studied reactions has been used in order to determine enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs energy changes of the reactions. It is found that the two studied redox reactions of OCA are strongly affected by solvation effects and controlled by entropy contributions to the Gibbs free energies. High-level ab initio calculations (G3 and CBS-QB3 using the CPCM solvation model) have been employed to calculate the reduction potentials of OCA in aqueous solution for the one-proton-two-electron (0.65 and 0.69 V at the respective levels of theory) and two-proton-two-electron (0.81 and 0.83 V) reactions, which are in excellent agreement with the corresponding experimental values. The acidic strength of the reduced form of OCA in aqueous solution, pK(a), has been also calculated (5.2) and is also in excellent agreement with the experimental value (5.0). The agreement mutually verifies the accuracy of experimental method and the validity of the mathematical model.