Redox transitions of chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt and nickel protoporphyrins in aqueous solution

The electrochemical redox behavior of immobilized chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, and nickel protoporphyrins IX has been investigated over the pH 0–14 range. In the investigated potential domain the metalloporphyrins were observed in four different oxidation states (MI, MII, MIII and MIV). The metalloporphyrins differ in the potentials at which the redox transitions occur, but the observed pH dependence of the redox transitions was similar for the different metalloporphyrins and revealed that the MII/MIII and MIII/MIV transitions were accompanied by a hydroxide transfer at high pH. The fact that the metalloporphyrins are immobilized on graphite does not seem to have a large influence on their redox behavior, as can be deduced from the comparable behavior of immobilized metalloporphyrins on gold and of watersoluble metalloporphyrins in solution. We also performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations on the metalloporphyrins in different oxidation states. The geometries and spin states predicted by these calculations agree well with experimentally determined values; the calculations were also able to predict the electrochemical potentials of the [MII]/[MIII–OH] redox transition to within about 300 mV.