The first extensive Investigation of the redox thermochemistry of protoheme Is described. A wealth of thermodynamic Information was obtained by judiciously combining results of potentiometrlc and thermometric titrations. Heats, Gibbs free energies, and entropies of the reduction of ferriheme to femoheme have been determined In (Hmethytformamide (DMF), In dimethylacetamide (DMA), and In mixtures of DMF or DMA and water. The reducing agent was chromous acetate. In order to segregate solvent effects attributable to the ferroferrlheme half-reaction, the AH, AG, and AS assignments have been referred to the ferrocene/ferrlcinlum couple whose energetics are known to be virtually Independent of solvent. The thermodynamic parameters of the ferroheme-ferrlheme redox process exhibited remarkable nonmonotonic trends as function of solvent composition. The results were generally consistent with concomitantly observed effects of solventsolute Interactions on electrode kinetics. Relevant electrochemical rate constants were evaluated by polarography and cyclic voltammetry.Oxidation-reduction properties of octahedral complexes of iron with the equatorial ligand protoporphyrin IX are of evident biological interest because the prosthetic groups of hemoproteins ("heme") are moieties of this type. They are implicated in crucial physiological functions (1) including oxygen transport (by hemoglobin), oxygen storage (by myoglobin), and cellular respiration (via cytochrome c). Extensive information is available in classical monographs (2, 3) on the standard and formal potentials of metalloporphyrin redox couples. Because heme tends to dimerize and polymerize in aqueous solutions (1, 4-7) many recent electrochemical studies have been carried out in the presence of nonaqueous solvents (I, 4, [8][9][10][11] where the situation is not complicated by aggregation.Surprisingly, data on the thermochemistry of oxidationreduction reactions of heme are conspicuous by their absence.In fact, only one study on the redox thermochemistry of any iron porphyrin (viz., of hematoporphyrin) has been reported in the literature (12). In the present paper, calorimetric results are presented and discussed involving the heat of reduction of ferriheme to ferroheme with chromous acetate in the aprotic solvents , -dimethylformamide (DMF) and IV^V-dimethyl acetamide (DMA), and in mixtures of these with water. Concomitantly, Gibbs free energies were estimated by electrochemical methods and corresponding entropies were computed. These thermodynamic findings were complemented by evaluation of electrode kinetics via cyclic voltammetry yielding illuminating insights on mechanistically significant solvent effects. EXPERIMENTAL General Conditions. Very dilute solutions of ferriheme, ferroheme, and chromous acetate (in a range between 0.0001 M and 0.001 M) were prepared in purified solvents (DMF, DMA, 1 Postdoctoral Scholar (1974-75) on leave from Université Pierre