Suppressing Sulfite Dimerization at a Polarized Gold Electrode/Water Solution Interface for High-Quality Gold Electrodeposition

Langmuir. 2021 Sep 28;37(38):11251-11259. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c01595. Epub 2021 Sep 16.

Abstract

Solid/liquid interfacial structure occupies great importance in chemistry, biology, and materials. In this paper, by combining EC-SERS study and DFT calculation, we reveal the adsorption and dimerization of sulfite (SO32-) at a gold electrode/water solution interface, and establish an adsorption displacement strategy to suppress the dimerization of sulfite. At the gold electrode/sodium sulfite solution interface, at least two layers of SO32- anions are adsorbed on the electrode surface. As the applied potential shifts negatively, the adsorption strength of the first SO32- layer is weakened gradually and then is dimerized with the second orientated SO32- layer to form S2O52-, and S2O52- is further reduced to S2O32-. After hydroxyethylene disphosphonic acid (HEDP) is introduced to the gold electrode/sodium sulfite solution interface, the second oriented SO32- layer is replaced by a HEDP coadsorption layer. This results in the first layer of SO32- being desorbed directly without any structural transformation or chemical reaction as the potential shifts negatively. The suppression of sulfite dimerization by HEDP is more clear at the gold electrode/gold sulfite solution interface owing to the electroreduction of gold ions. Furthermore, the electrochemical studies and electrodeposition experiments show that as the sulfite dimerization reaction is suppressed, the electroreduction of gold ions is accelerated, and the deposited gold coating is bright and dense with finer grains.