Experimental and Computational Studies on the Electrochemical Behavior of Carvacrol and Menthol

In this study, the effects of solvent on the electrode potentials of menthol and carvacrol species were investigated experimentally and computationally and their antioxidant properties were compared in different solvents by calculating the half-wave potential E1/2 of species, Vand Dissociative Energy (BDE), Ionization Energy (IE), and Electron Affinity (EA). Electrochemical behavior of menthol and carvacrol species in four solvents (MeOH, EtOH, DMSO, and Heptane) were studied using cyclovoltametric technique in a glass electrode as a working electrode and the calculations for obtaining the electrode potential were performed using DFT functional including B3LYP with 6-311+G(d,p)basis set and PCM and IEFPCM models for calculation of solvent energy. Finally, the results were compared and confirmed by experimental methods. Where in the compound carvacrol represent more properties antioxidant than menthol due to lower values E1/2 in gas and solution phases. Also, the lower BDE in the gas phase is 80.19 kcal/mol compared with menthol (98.91 kcal/mol). Moreover, compound carvacrol has the IE value of 1.12 eV smaller than menthol and has the EA value of 0.35 eV higher than menthol. Calculations show that the model had no effect on computational results. Also, according to the results, the antioxidant properties of carvacrol in non-polar solvents were higher due to the smaller amount of E1/2.