Hydroxyurea electrooxidation at gold electrodes. In situ infrared spectroelectrochemical and DFT characterization of adsorbed intermediates

Highlights: •Hydroxyurea oxidizes irreversibly on gold electrodes. •CO₂, N₂O and isocyanic acid (HNCO) have been detected in solution using IRRAS. •ATR-SEIRAS and DFT show the formation of adsorbed cyanate and nitrosoformamide. •DFT results indicate weak adsorption of hydroxiurea at Au surfaces. -- Abstract: The oxidation of hydroxyurea (H₂NCONHOH, HU) at Au(100), Au(111) and Au(111)–25 nm thin film electrodes is studied spectroelectrochemically in perchloric acid solutions. HU, which in agreement with DFT results interacts weakly with the gold surfaces, oxidizes irreversibly at gold electrodes irrespective of the surface orientation. The in situ infrared external reflection spectra prove the formation of dissolved carbon dioxide and adsorbed cyanate as products of the HU electrooxidation reaction. A band at ca. 2230 cm⁻¹ can be related both to dissolved isocyanic acid coming from the protonation of adsorbed cyanate or to nitrous oxide coming from the oxidation of hydroxylamine, which is formed (together with adsorbed cyanate) upon the chemical decomposition of hydroxyurea. ATR-SEIRAS experiments allow the observation of other adsorbate bands that can be tentatively ascribed to reaction intermediates that conserve the NCN skeleton and are bonded to the metal by the nitrogen atoms at near on-top positions. Bonding to the surface can be either unidentate or bidentate, involving covalent-type bonds or dative bonding through the lone pairs of the N atoms. Some of the signals of the experimental spectra, in particular those appearing around 1800 cm⁻¹, can be assigned to the CO stretch of adsorbed intermediates having a nitrosyl group formed by oxidation of the NOH moiety (namely, adsorbed nitrosoformamide or its deprotonated form). The bands observed around 1650 cm⁻¹ can correspond either to the NO stretching mode of the former species or to the CO stretching modes of adspecies conserving the NOH group.