Presentation description

Coupled electron and phase transfer reactions are a chemical process where the transfer of electrons is coupled with the transfer of a substance (usually ions) between two immiscible phases, in our case an aqueous phase and an organic phase. These reactions are essential in fields like electrochemistry particularly Lithium Ion Batteries, synthetic organic chemistry, and industrial processes for the efficient conversion of chemicals and energy. We are trying to study the redox reaction of Ferrocene/Ferrocenium at the alkyl functionalized surface of the TiO2 nanoparticles. Ferrocenium in water is reduced by a photoelectron ejected from the metal oxide nanoparticle surface and the resulting product, Ferrocene being hydrophobic, tends to get partitioned in the non-polar phase of alkyl monolayers. The interplay of two processes, electron and phase transfers, is studied as a function of changing alkyl chain lengths attached to the nanoparticle surface varying from Hexyl to Octadecyl alkyl chain lengths. We are also studying how local environment changes such as small changes to solvent affect on this process.