Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reactions with Photometric Bases Reveal Free Energy Relationships for Proton Transfer.

The proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) oxidation of p-aminophenol in acetonitrile was initiated via stopped-flow rapid-mixing and spectroscopically monitored. For oxidation by ferrocenium in the presence of 7-(dimethylamino)quinoline proton acceptors, both the electron transfer and proton transfer components could be optically monitored in the visible region; the decay of the ferrocenium absorbance is readily monitored (λmax = 620 nm), and the absorbance of the 2,4-substituted 7-(dimethylamino)quinoline derivatives (λmax = 370-392 nm) red-shifts substantially (ca. 70 nm) upon protonation. Spectral analysis revealed the reaction proceeds via a stepwise electron transfer-proton transfer process, and modeling of the kinetics traces monitoring the ferrocenium and quinolinium signals provided rate constants for elementary proton and electron transfer steps. As the pKa values of the conjugate acids of the 2,4-R-7-(dimethylamino)quinoline derivatives employed were readily tuned by varying the substituents at the 2- and 4-positions of the quinoline backbone, the driving force for proton transfer was systematically varied. Proton transfer rate constants (kPT,2 = (1.5-7.5) × 10(8) M(-1) s(-1), kPT,4 = (0.55-3.0) × 10(7) M(-1) s(-1)) were found to correlate with the pKa of the conjugate acid of the proton acceptor, in agreement with anticipated free energy relationships for proton transfer processes in PCET reactions.