Chlorine Dioxide/Chlorite-Iodide Reaction Mechanism
J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 118, No. 15, 1996 3709
(III) was prepared from iodate and iodine in concentrated sulfuric acid.24
In a spectrophotometric cell, a small volume (50-200 µL) of this
solution was injected into a precooled NaOH solution, the concentration
of which was calculated to allow the final solution to reach the desired
pH of the sulfate buffer. The temperature of the solution after dilution
was 25 ( 1 °C.
We believe that there are additional problems with these
models. One shortcoming is that such models attempt to fit
data in regions where incomplete mixing seriously affects
13-19
oscillations,
without explicitly taking into account any such
interference with the chemical kinetics. The best model should
contain a set of rate constants that make it possible to account
for the effects of incomplete mixing using the appropriate
physical mixing model. None of the models proposed to date
Hypochlorous acid was prepared from the reaction of chlorine water
25
and HgO (Fluka). Excess HgO was mixed with water and a CCl
4
4
solution of chlorine. After the solids were filtered off, CCl was
-
includes triiodide ion explicitly. Inclusion of I3 in C&E, for
separated from the water phase containing HOCl, and the remainder
of Cl O in the CCl phase was extracted into water. The HOCl in the
example, would modify the entire dynamics. Another problem
is that HOI, which is the most significant intermediate in the
reaction, becomes protonated around pH 2 (the most frequently
2
4
water phase was further purified by distillation. The distilled HOCl/
Cl O was dissolved in cool water. HOCl obtained this way was free
2
+
from any lower or higher oxidation states of chlorine and from other
ions and was stored at 5 °C.
The ionic strength of the reaction mixtures was fixed at 0.3 M by
used experimental pH). One consequence of H2OI formation
is that the mechanism of iodine hydrolysis changes in going
from pH 3 to pH 1 (see a detailed analysis in ref 20). These
models do not account for such changes and consequently cannot
correctly describe the pH dependence below pH 3.
To obtain a more experimentally based mechanism of the
title reaction we studied the kinetics not only of the chlorite-
iodide reaction but also that of its subsystems, including the
chlorite-iodine, hypochlorous acid-iodine, hypoiodous acid, and
iodous acid disproportionation reactions and fitted the appropri-
ate rate constants of these reactions to the kinetics data. We
therefore obtained a self-consistent set of rate constants for the
overall reaction, which we now present.
adding calculated amounts of NaClO
4
to the buffer solutions. The
with NaOH.
NaClO was obtained by titrating HClO
4
4
Methods. Every reaction was studied by spectrophotometry with
an HP diode array spectrophotometer. In the case of slower reactions
a stirred spectrophotometric cell was used as a reactor, while in the
case of the chlorite-iodine and hypochlorite-iodine reactions, the HP
diode array spectrophotometer was combined with a HiTech stopped-
flow. The dead-time of the stopped-flow apparatus was about 5 ms,
and the maximum collection rate of the diode-array photometer was
1
0 Hz. Since the time scale of these reactions is in the 10 s range,
time resolution errors are negligible. Every reaction was measured
simultaneously at several different wavelengths or in a wavelength
range. Comparisons were made between experiments that used a light
filter which blocked light below 300 nm and those that used no filter.
Within experimental error, no difference was detected. As a further
check on whether light induced a reaction in this system, we varied
the shutter opening time from 0.1 to 1 s at 1 Hz collection rate and
found no detectable effect. At least three replicate runs were averaged
for each concentration set. The spectra of the reaction mixtures were
analyzed and the number of independent absorbing species was
determined by Coleman-Varga-Mastin's method.26 All measurements
Experimental Section
Materials. All chemicals were Fisher reagent grade unless noted
otherwise. Sodium chlorite (80%, Aldrich) was purified as described
21
earlier, and stock solutions were kept in the dark. The chlorite content
of the purified chlorite was 98.8 ( 0.5% by iodometric titrations.
2
2
Chlorine dioxide was prepared as described in the literature. Iodine
stock solutions were prepared by dissolving crystalline iodine in double-
distilled water. The iodide content was checked by measuring the
spectrum of the solution at the experimental pHs. The iodide content
was determined from this measurement, the spectra of iodine and
triiodide, and the triiodide formation equilibrium constant. It was
consistent with the equilibrium concentration of iodide originating from
iodine hydrolysis.
were performed at 25 ( 0.2 °C, except for the HIO
2
disproportionation
where the temperature was 25 ( 1 °C.
In reactors stirred at moderate speeds (300-600 rpm), imperfect
mixing can arise in the chlorite-iodide reaction, which causes irrepro-
ducible results. Fortunately, proper order of addition of reagents can
prevent this occurrence. If the reactor contains a chlorine dioxide
solution to which a lesser amount of iodide ion solution is added, which
we refer to as CI-order, chlorite and iodine are so rapidly produced
that the secondary reaction and mixing rates are competitive. Because
the iodide concentration is so low, there is virtually no inhibition, and
the reaction between chlorite and iodine follows immediately. Depend-
ing on the rate of iodide addition and the average mixing time, different
amounts of iodine will be consumed during mixing. A similar situation
occurs if chlorite replaces chlorine dioxide in the reactor when its
The organic content of “distilled water” reacting with iodine could
produce different iodide concentration levels in acidic media; conse-
quently, special precautions were taken to avoid this interference. For
studying the kinetics of the HOCl + I
2
and HClO
2
2
+ I reactions we
used organic-free, high purity water for the stock solutions and
determined the iodide content of iodine stocks in acidic media. In all
-
cases [I ] was close to that concentration originating solely from iodine
hydrolysis. These iodide concentrations were considered in the
calculations as initial values, although they did not make a significant
difference in the resulting kinetics curves.
-
3
concentration is above 10 M and the pH is 2 or less.
Hypoiodous acid was generated by the instantaneous hydrolysis of
ICl23 dissolved in methyl alcohol. Small amounts (50-200 µL) of ICl
solution were injected into 2.5 mL of sulfate buffer solutions. Iodine-
To avoid this source of error, the following reactor configuration
was used. The reactor contains iodide ion, to which a lesser amount
of chlorine dioxide solution is added (IC-order). In this case, iodide
-
is always in excess, the chlorite-iodide reaction is slow (strong I
11) Stemwedel, J. D.; Ross, J. J. Phys. Chem. 1993, 97, 2863.
inhibition) and the chlorite-iodine reaction does not occur to an
appreciable extent during the mixing process. Reproducible kinetics
curves were obtained with IC-order. At 300 rpm with CI-order, the
time at which all the iodide is consumed (peak of Figure 1) can be as
much as ten times shorter than that found with IC-order. At higher
stirring rates, the CI-order experiments get closer to the IC-order
experiments, and above 1200 rpm they are indistinguishable in the
spectrophotometric cell we used. However, the higher stirring rate
makes the spectrophotometric measurements extremely noisy, because
of cavitation and vortex formation. With the IC-order the reaction is
2
1
851.
(13) Roux, J. C.; Boissonade, J.; De Kepper, P. Phys. Lett. A 1983, 97,
68.
(
14) Boukalouch, M.; Boissonade, J.; De Kepper, P. J. Chim. Phys. Phys.-
Chim. Biol. 1987, 84, 1353.
(
15) Boissonade, J.; De Kepper, P. J. Chem. Phys. 1987, 87, 210.
(16) Menzinger, M.; Boissonade, J.; Boukalouch, M.; De Kepper, P.;
Roux, J. C.; Saadaoui, H. J. Phys. Chem. 1986, 90, 313.
(
(
(
(
(
(
17) Menzinger, M.; Giraudi, A. J. Phys. Chem. 1987, 91, 4391.
18) Ochiai, E. I.; Menzinger, M. J. Phys. Chem. 1990, 94, 8866.
19) Ali, F.; Menzinger, M. J. Phys. Chem. 1991, 95, 6408.
20) Lengyel, I.; Epstein, I. R.; Kustin, K. Inorg. Chem. 1993, 32, 5880.
21) Nagyp a´ l, I.; Epstein, I. R. J. Phys. Chem. 1986, 90, 6285.
22) Lengyel, I.; R a´ bai, G.; Epstein, I. R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112,
(24) Noszticzius, Z.; Noszticzius, E.; Schelly, Z. A. J. Phys. Chem. 1983,
87, 510.
(25) Handbook of PreparatiVe Inorganic Chemistry, 2nd ed.; Brauer,
G., Ed.; Academic Press: New York, 1963; Vol. 1, p 308.
(26) Coleman, J. S.; Varga, L. P.; Mastin, S. H. Inorg. Chem. 1970, 9,
1015.
9
104.
(
23) Wang, Y. L.; Margerum, D. W.; Nagy, J. C. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
1
989, 111, 7838.