Accounting for species’ thermodynamic activities changes mechanistic interpretations of electrochemical kinetic data

The thermodynamic activity of a reacting species, rather than the concentration of that species, generally determines the rate of a kinetically-limited reaction. In this work we demonstrate the need for the explicit accounting of reacting species’ thermodynamic activities in solution, especially when conducting electrochemical kinetic tests. In hydrogen evolution in an alkaline acetonitrile-water blended electrolyte as well as previously-reported oxygen-atom transfer reactions (cyclooctene epoxidation and cyclohexanone lactonization), we demonstrate that accounting for species thermodynamic activity causes water-dependence measurements to yield different mechanistic interpretations than data which treats concentration as a proxy for activity. We hypothesize many ways in which water contributes to the reaction rate beyond direct participation in the reaction, offer initial molecular interpretations of the water activity-concentration relationship in the blended electrolyte, and discuss implications of these findings for better understanding solvent effects.