Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 1997, 62, 185-198
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19970185

Hydrophobic Ferrocene Derivatives as Potential Standards in Electrochemistry

Jaroslav Podlahaa, Petr Štěpničkaa, Róbert Gyepesa, Vladimír Marečekb, Alexander Lhotskýb, Miroslav Polášekb, Jiří Kubištab and Martin Nejezchlebac

a Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Charles University, 128 40 Prague 2, Czech Republic
b J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 182 28 Prague 8, Czech Republic
c Joint Laboratory of Mössbauer Spectroscopy, Charles University, V Holešovičkách 2, 182 00 Prague 8, Czech Republic

Abstract

Ferrocene (FcH) derivatives monosubstituted by palmitoyl (1), hexadecyl (2), 1-adamantoyl (3) or 1-adamantylmethyl (4) groups were sythesized and characterized by NMR, mass and 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy. The structure of 1-adamantoylferrocene was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Cyclic voltammetry on gold and glass-like carbon electrodes demonstrated that the compounds can serve as electrochemical standards for special cases since their ferrocene/ferricinium redox potential remains stable and reversible, while the properties such as solubility, diffusion coefficients and surface tension are strongly solvent-dependent.

Keywords: Substituted ferrocenes; Electrochemistry; Crystal structure; Mössbauer spectroscopy; Mass spectroscopy.