Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have been widely investigated as alternative electrochemical solvents for a range of dissolved species over the past two decades. However, the behaviour of neutral radicals dissolved in RTILs is relatively unexplored. In this work, the electrochemistry of a stable verdazyl radical – 1,5-dimethyl-3-phenyl-6-oxoverdazyl (MPV) – has been studied on a platinum thin-film electrode using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry in 10 different RTILs. The organic solvent propylene carbonate is also employed as a comparison. The nature of the solvent system was found to have a large effect on the electrochemical behaviour, particularly on the reduction reaction of the verdazyl radical. Chronoamperometry on a microdisk electrode was used to calculate diffusion coefficients (D), and plots of D versus the inverse of viscosity were linear, suggesting typical hydrodynamic diffusional characteristics of the radical, in line with the behaviour of dissolved neutral and charged compounds (e.g. ferrocene and cobaltocenium) in RTILs. Overall, this study demonstrates that different RTILs have a significant influence on the electrochemistry of MPV, and therefore careful selection of the solvent system for electrochemical applications is advised.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	verdazyl, radical, ionic liquid, electrochemistry, electron spin resonance
Research Division:	Chemical Sciences
Research Group:	Organic chemistry
Research Field:	Organic chemical synthesis
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the chemical sciences
UTAS Author:	Fuller, RO (Dr Rebecca Fuller)
ID Code:	143940
Year Published:	2020
Funding Support:	Australian Research Council (DE180100112)
Web of Science® Times Cited:	2
Deposited By:	Chemistry
Deposited On:	2021-04-12
Last Modified:	2022-08-19
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