Oxidation of mercury microelectrodes in complexing media in the presence and absence of supporting electrolyte:: Formation of thiocyanate complexes

Normal pulse- and staircase-voltammetric oxidation of a mercury microelectrode in thiocyanate media both with and without supporting electrolyte was investigated. An equation describing the normal pulse voltammetric limiting currents flowing through a nearly spherical segment microelectrode was developed theoretically and verified experimentally. The diffusion coefficients of mercury(II) complexes containing different numbers of the thiocyanate anions were determined. A general time-dependent digital simulation scheme was developed for calculating the current for the oxidation of mercury(0) in the presence of ligands and excess supporting electrolyte and for any pulse voltammetric technique. The time-dependent mass balance equation recently developed for a system, in which diffusion coefficients of reactant and products are different, was applied. A brief review was given on the standard potentials of various mercury systems available in the literature. A general procedure for the evaluation of the stability constants of metal complexes based on the shape of the voltammograms was described and applied to the case of thiocyanato complexes of Hg(II). The stability constant results agreed well with those of Nyman and Alberts [Anal. Chem. 32 (1960) 207]. Also discussed was the determination of the formation constant β1 for Hg(SCN)+.