Mechanistic Insight into Peroxydisulfate Reactivity: Oxidation of the cis,cis-[Ru(bpy)2(OH2)]2O4+ “Blue Dimer”

One-electron oxidation of the μ-oxo dimer (cis,cis-[RuIII(bpy)2(OH2)]2O4+, {3,3}) to {3,4} by S2O82– can be described by three concurrent reaction pathways corresponding to the three protic forms of {3,3}. Free energy correlations of the rate constants, transient species dynamics determined by pulse radiolysis, and medium and temperature dependencies of the alkaline pathway all suggest that the rate-determining step in these reactions is a strongly nonadiabatic dissociative electron transfer within a precursor ion pair leading to the {3,4}|SO42–|SO4•– ion triple. As deduced from the SO4•– scavenging experiments with 2-propanol, the SO4•– radical then either oxidizes {3,4} to {4,4} within the ion triple, effecting a net two-electron oxidation of {3,3}, or escapes in solution with ∼25% probability to react with additional {3,3} and {3,4}, that is, effecting sequential one-electron oxidations. The reaction model presented also invokes rapid {3,3} + {4,4} → 2{3,4} comproportionation, for which kcom ∼5 × 107 M...