Spectroelectrochemical Investigations of Molten Halide Solutions.

Abstract : The main objective of this research, performed by Ellen Kurt Hondrogiannis, a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, is to investigate the utility of the combination of spectroscopy and electrochemistry, or spectroelectrochemistry (SEC), for studies of redox processes in molten halides. The initial studies involved the use of UV-visible, Raman, and electron spin resonance SEC to identify the radical anion intermediate formed during the electrochemical reduction of tetrachloro-p-benzoquinone, or chloranil, in the basic (50 mole percent AlCl3) molten sodium chloroaluminate melt at 175 Degree C. This anion intermediate had not been detected in this melt previously, since cyclic voltammetry shows only one wave which had previously been attributed to a single two electron reduction to the dianion.