Superoxide-mediated reduction of organically complexed iron(III): Impact of pH and competing cations (Ca2+)

The mechanism and kinetics of superoxide-mediated reduction of a variety of organic iron(III) complexes has been investigated over the pH range 7–9. Our experimental results show that the rate of iron(II) formation is a function of pH, ligand type and ligand concentration with the measured rate varying between 0.44 ± 0.07 and 39.25 ± 1.77 pM s⁻¹ in the systems investigated. Additionally, our results show that the presence of competing cations such as Ca²⁺ have a significant impact on iron(II) formation if the organic ligand is strongly complexed by Ca²⁺. Formation of iron(II) occurs by either (or, in some instances, both) reaction of superoxide with inorganic iron(III) after its dissociation from the complex (dissociative reduction) or by direct reaction of superoxide with the complex (non-dissociative reduction). In the presence of weak ligands, dissociative reduction (DR) dominates; however non-dissociative reduction (NDR) becomes important in the presence of either strongly binding ligands or high concentrations of weakly binding ligands. The major factors contributing to the pH dependence of the iron(II) formation rate are the complexation kinetics of inorganic iron(III) (which controls the DR contribution) and the reduction kinetics of the iron(III) complex (which controls the NDR contribution). The relative NDR contribution increases with increasing superoxide and ligand concentration and decreasing pH for all ligands examined. Since iron(II) formation occurring via NDR results in a significantly larger increase in the proportion of iron in free aquated form than does DR, this non-dissociative pathway of superoxide-mediated iron(III) reduction is particularly effective in increasing the lability of iron in aquatic systems.