Kinetic Study of 4-Nitrocatechol Oxidation Using Digital Simulation of Cyclic Voltammograms

The electrochemical oxidation of 4-nitrocatechol in aqueous media was studied using cyclic voltammetry. The results indicate that the stability of electrochemically generated o-nitrobenzoquinone is low and decreases with increasing pH. Also, our voltammetric data show that the species produced from the conversion of o-nitrobenzoquinone are electro-inactive in the studied potential range. In addition, the results reveal that the rate of conversion of o-nitrobenzoquinone is dependent on the nature of the solvent. According to EC mechanism, the observed homogeneous rate constant of the conversion of o-nitrobenzoquinone was estimated by comparing the experimental cyclic voltammograms with the digitally simulated results. Finally, a possible mechanism is proposed for the electrode process, on the basis of the present and previous investigations.