Electrochemical behaviour of RSSR thiuram disulfides

Abstract The electrochemical behaviour of tetraalkylthiuram disulfides (RSSR) has been investigated by using cyclic voltammetry at various scan rates, temperatures, and for several organic moieties R. The experiments have been run for solutions of RSSR in acetonitrile, and also for solutions of dithiocarbamate salts (RS − ). These experiments show that RSSR is reducible into RSSR − , but this latter is unstable, decomposing into RS − and RS · . Furthermore, RSSR is partly dissociated into 2RS · , which is also a reducible species. A model is proposed, involving two redox couples RS · /RS − and RSSR/RSSR − . The corresponding voltammograms have been simulated and fitted to the experimental voltammograms at several temperatures. The experimental observation of the reduction of RS · for tetraisopropylthiuram disulfide solutions supports the proposed model.