Mechanism of coadsorption of two organic substances on electrodes at strong attractive interaction between their molecules in the adsorption layer

Based on the model of three parallel capacitors, the differential capacitance and the surface concentration of two organic compounds coadsorbed on an electrode are calculated as a function of the potential. It is shown that for the strong attractive interaction of two different adsorbed molecules that occupy equal areas on the surface and for different combinations of the other adsorption parameters is well described by the model of two parallel capacitors with a simple Frumkin isotherm. However, in this case, the effective attraction constant in this isotherm should depend on the electrode potential. The obtained results show that the good agreement of experimental data with the calculations based on the model of two parallel capacitors is insufficient for assuming that the orientation of adsorbed molecules of a given organic compound is potential-independent. On the other hand, if the adsorbate molecule in two different orientations occupies different areas on the electrode surface, then the model of two parallel capacitors does not allow one to describe the dependence of the total surface concentration on the electrode potential even under the conditions where this model adequately describes the differential capacitance curves.