Preparative Electrosynthesis of Strong Oxidizers at Boron-Doped Diamond Electrode in Anhydrous HF.

The use of the boron-doped diamond electrode as a sufficiently stable electrode for electrochemical measurements/synthesis in liquid anhydrous hydrogen fluoride medium is reported. Electrooxidation of silver(I) has been studied in this solvent by using classical transient electrochemical methods and impedance spectroscopy. It has been found that faradaic currents related to silver(I) oxidation and the fluorine evolution reaction are reasonably separated at the potential scale, which allows efficient electrosynthesis of Ag F , a powerful oxidizer. Impedance spectroscopy measurements provide insight into complex mechanism of AgF formation. The procedure for electrosynthesis is provided for the first time in both galvanostatic and potentiostatic condition.