New mechanistic aspects of the fenton reaction

The kinetics of the Fenton reaction was studied in detail. A second reaction step in the presence of excess H₂O₂ is attributed to formation of the complex Fe^III(^-O₂H) _aq. Therefore, the reaction of Fe(H₂O)₆ ²⁺ with Fe^III(^-O₂H)_aq in the presence of Fe^II to form Fe^III_aq (K = (7.7 ± 1.5) × 10⁵M^-1 s^-1 may contribute to the overall Fenton reaction, and could account for some of the debate in the literature concerning its detailed mechanism. If this is correct for LFe ^III(^-O₂H)_aq also, then it might be of significant biological importance. The activation parameters δH ^d̊, ΔS^d̊, and ΔV^d̊ for the Fenton reaction were measured under various experimental conditions, and are used in the mechanistic interpretation.