Electrochemical behavior and assembly of tetranuclear Dawson-derived sandwich compound [Cd4(H2O)2(As2W15O56)2] on 4-aminobenzoic acid modified glassy carbon electrode

The transition metal-substituted heteropolyoxoanion, Cd₄(H₂O)₂(As₂W₁₅O₅₆)₂¹²⁻ (As₄W₃₀Cd₄), is one of the trivacant Dawson derivatives. Its redox electrochemistry has been studied in acid buffer solutions using cyclic voltammetry. It exhibited three steps of four-electron redox waves attributed to redox processes of the tungsten-oxo framework. Through layer-by-layer assembly, the compound was first successfully immobilized on a 4-aminobenzoic acid modified glassy carbon electrode surface by alternate deposition with a quaternized poly(4-vinylpyridine) partially complexed with Os(bpy)₂Cl]^2+/+ (denoted as QPVP-Os). Thus, prepared multilayer films have been characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis spectroscopy (UV-vis). The electrocatalytic activities of the multilayer films containing As₄W₃₀Cd₄ have been investigated on the reduction of three substrates of important analytical interests, NO₂⁻, BrO₃⁻ and IO₃⁻. And with the increase of the number of As₄W₃₀Cd₄ layers, the catalytic current towards the reduction of BrO₃⁻ was enhanced and the catalytic potential shifted positively.