Charge distribution effects in polyatomic reactants involved in simple electron transfer reactions

The role of charge distribution in a polyatomic reactant in determining its effective charge in the double layer is discussed. It is shown that the use of a corrected Tafel plot (cTp) requires knowledge of the effective charge on both the reactant and product of a simple electron transfer process. This leads to the use of so called apparent corrected Tafel plots. Data obtained in this laboratory for six different simple electron transfer reactions involving transition metal ions are reviewed, and discussed in terms of their kinetic parameters, namely, the effective charge on the reactant and the apparent Tafel coefficient.