A new access to Gibbs energies of transfer of ions across liquid|liquid interfaces and a new method to study electrochemical processes at well-defined three-phase junctions

Droplets of polar and nonpolar aprotic solvents containing dissolved electroactive species can be easily attached to paraffin-impregnated graphite electrodes. When the electrode with the attached droplet is introduced into an aqueous electrolyte solution, the electrochemical reactions of the dissolved species can be elegantly studied. Provided the droplet does not contain a dissolved electrolyte, the electrochemical reaction will be confined to the very edge of the three-phase junction droplet|graphite|aqueous electrolyte. When a neutral species is oxidised, two pathways are possible: the oxidised species can remain in the droplet and anions will be transferred from the aqueous solution to the organic solvent, or the oxidised species may leave the droplet and enter the aqueous solution. Depending on the nature of the dissolved species, the nature of the organic solvent, the presence or absence of appropriate anions and cations in the two liquid phases, very different reaction pathways are possible. The new approach allows studies of ion transfer between immiscible solvents to be performed with a three-electrode potentiostat. Electrochemical determinations of the Gibbs energy of ion transfer between aqueous and nonpolar nonaqueous liquids are possible, whereas conventional ion transfer studies require the presence of a dissociated electrolyte in the organic phase. The new method considerably widens the spectrum of accessible ions.