pH-dependence of the aqueous electrochemistry of the two-electron reduced alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)] sulfite Dawson-like polyoxometalate anion derived from its triethanolammonium salt

The electrochemistry of the Dawson-like sulfite polyoxometalate anion alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)2]6-, derived from the TEAH6{alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)2]} salt (TEAH+ is the triethanolammonium cation; pKa=7.8), has been investigated in aqueous media using cyclic and rotated disk voltammetry at glassy carbon electrodes and bulk electrolysis, with a focus on the pH-dependence for oxidation to alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)2]4-. In buffered media at pH>or=4, the cyclic voltammetric response for alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)2]6- reveals two partially resolved one-electron oxidation processes corresponding to the sequential generation of alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)2]5- and alpha-[Mo18O54(SO3)2]4-. At lower pH, using electrolytes containing sulfuric acid, the two waves coalesce but the individual apparent E0' reversible formal potential values for the two processes can be extracted down to pH 2 by assuming that reversible protonation accompanies fast electron transfer. The results for 2