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The magical properties of sodium chlorate: why does it maintain red oxidation stability in water?
In the field of electrochemistry, supporting electrolytes are widely used in various measurements, especially when controlling the electrode potential becomes crucial. According to the definition of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), a supporting electrolyte is an electrolyte containing inactive chemical substances whose ionic strength and conductivity are much higher than the added electroactive substances. These supporting electrolytes are usually called background electrolytes, inert electrolytes or inactive electrolytes. Their main function is to enhance the conductivity of the solution, maintain constant ionic strength and pH value, etc.
The supporting electrolyte must be a strong electrolyte that is completely dissociated, has good electrical conductivity, and is chemically inert to other solutes.
An effective supporting electrolyte should possess several important properties. First, it must completely dissociate in aqueous solution; only then can good conductivity be ensured. Second, the electrolyte must be sufficiently soluble to increase the ionic strength of the solution under the experimental conditions. Furthermore, the supporting electrolyte must be chemically inert toward other solutes in the solution, meaning that no precipitation reactions, colloidal suspension formation, or complex formation should occur, and it should not participate in any unwanted redox reactions.
For example, sodium chlorate (NaClO4) is often used as a background electrolyte because it is highly soluble and does not interfere with complexation studies.
Sodium chlorate is a commonly used background electrolyte. It not only has excellent solubility properties (2096 g/L can be dissolved at 25°C), but also can increase the ionic strength of the solution to 8 M. It is noteworthy that although chlorate becomes a strong oxidant at high temperatures, it does not show any oxidizing ability in aqueous solution. This property allows sodium chlorate to coexist safely in solutions containing ferrous ions (Fe2+), which are easily oxidized by dissolved oxygen upon contact with air.
Chlorate's electrochemical inertness is primarily due to its rate-limited reactions with other chemicals, which makes it very stable in water.
The higher activation energy of chlorate ions hinders their redox reactions, which is called irreversibility in chemical kinetics. The central chlorine atom of chlorate is surrounded by four surrounding oxygen atoms, a structure that further enhances its stability. In general, chlorate, as a highly oxidized tetraoxygenate, has relatively low chemical activity. Compared with other oxygenates of the same series, bleaching ions (ClO−) and chlorate (ClO3−), which are also in a lower oxidation state, are more oxidizing than chlorate in water, which shows the relationship between chemical structure and reaction potential. The delicate relationship.
When studying the electrochemical behavior of solutions, choosing a suitable supporting electrolyte is crucial. This is because the characteristics of the background electrolyte can significantly affect the accuracy and repeatability of the measurement. As studies have shown, different background electrolytes will affect the structure of water molecules and the hydration thermodynamic properties of solutes, which in turn directly affect the dissolution and growth process of crystals.
Choosing the right background electrolyte can not only improve the accuracy of the experiment, but also reduce unnecessary errors, thus making the relevant research results more credible.
In the scientific community, the application of supporting electrolytes has broad prospects. Its characteristics make it play an important role in fields such as chemistry, materials science and bioelectrochemistry. As electrochemical technology continues to advance, researchers' understanding of supporting electrolytes will gradually deepen, which may promote the development of new materials and the emergence of new technologies. In the future, as more research is conducted, some uncommon supporting electrolytes may emerge, providing unexpected new opportunities.
So, with the development of electrochemistry, what changes will the new properties of supporting electrolytes bring to our research?
