Redox titrations

The practical is divided into four half days. On the first morning we will lean about the meaning of redox potentials, their measurements and their importance for our understanding of bioenergetics, enzymes, reaction chains, microbial communities and the origin of Life. In the afternoon we will determine the redox midpoint potential of a model protein by a chemical redox titrations in a cuvette. On the second day we will perform a redox titration in an optical transparent thin-layer electrochemical cell with the same protein. Finally, data evaluation of the outcome from both techniques will be the subject of the last afternoon.

Students prerequisites

• Interest in the subject (students can bring a sample if they want, but this should be discussed beforehand)

Students will learn the theory of redox reactions and practice two different techniques of redox titrations that can be combined with a variety of spectroscopic techniques (optics, EPR, fluorescence, CD, infrared). After the practical, they will be able to perform a chemically-induced optical redox titration themselves (a redox cuvette is easily fabricated by a glass blower) and to evaluate their data.