Kinetics and mechanism of the interaction of hexaaquochromium(III) with octacyanomolybdate(IV) ions

The kinetics of the interaction of hexaaquochromium(III) ion with potassium octacyanomolybdate(IV) have been studied using conductance and spectrophotometric data. The mechanism of the reaction is discussed and the effect of H⁺ ion and the ionic strength on the rate of the reaction determined. The reaction is found to be pseudo-first order with respect to potassium octacyanomolybdate(IV) and inverse first order with [H₃O⁺]. The rate of the reaction increases with increase in ionic strength and temperature. Activation parameters have been calculated using the Arrhenius equation and have the values ΔE^* = 1.3 × 10² kJ mol^?1, ΔH^* = 129 kJ mol^?1, ΔS^* = ?315 e.u., ΔF^* = 2.3 × 10² kJ and A = 1.5 × 10^?3. The mechanism proposed is based on ion-pair formation and the rate equation obtained is given by: k_obs=$\text{[}{}_{\mathrm{kK}}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>E</mtext>}}\text{[H}{}_3\text{O}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{]+}\text{k′K′k}{}_{\mathrm{E}}\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{h}}\text{][Mo(CN)}{}_8{}^{\mathrm{4?}}\text{]}\text{[H}{}_3\text{O}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{]+}\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>h</mtext>}}\text{+[}\text{K}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>E</mtext>}}\text{[H}{}_3\text{O}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{]+}\text{K′}{}_{\mathrm{E}}\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{h}}\text{][Mo(CN)}{}_8{}^{\mathrm{4?}}\text{]}$