A wide study was carried out of the acid-base behaviour of ferricyanide ions in aqueous perchloric acid media in the range 0.1-1 1.5 M. 'This study shows that protonation and decomposition of the ferricyanide ions occur simultaneously. The three successive protonation equilibria were found in the acidity ranges 0.1-4.0, 3.5-8.5, and 7.0-11.5 M HC104, respectively. A kinetic study was also made of the decomposition reaction at 60°C. The kinetic data are explained by considering a reaction mechanism involving homolytic and heterolytic dissociation steps. The homolytic and heterolytic rate constants corresponding to each of the four protonated species were determined, along with the acid-base protonation constants, pK1 = -6.25 + 0.10; pK2 = -3.23 * 0.03; and pK3 = -0.60 2 0.02. Mots clis : comportement acide-base, espkces protonks, dtcomposition, dissociation homolytique, dissociation hCtCrolytique.[Traduit par la revue] Introduction In a previous paper, the acid-base behaviour of the ferrocyanide ion in perchloric acid media was studied by potentiometry and spectrophotometry ( 1). In this paper, the corresponding acid-base investigation of the ferricyanide ion is undertaken; this study, however, involves also kinetic measurements, since femcyanide ions decompose at high acid concentrations.The potentiometric titration of a sample of 0.01 N K3Fe(CN)6 with aqueous HCl shows no evidence of protonation; the curve coincides with that obtained in the titration of a blank solution containing pure water, this fact indicating that the three ionization constants of ferricyanic acid, H3Fe(CN)6, are higher than 0.1 (2,3). On the other hand, the titration curves of a sample of 0.01 M H3Fe(CN)6 with NaOH, obtained by potentiometric and conductimetric techniques, are identical to those achieved titrating 0.03 M HC1. Thus the three constants must be quite high (4). None of the three pK values was found in the literature; however, to be able to explain the effect of acidity on the rate constant, several contributions on the oxidation of organic substrates by femcyanide in acid media (5-1 1) suggest that the first protonation occurs in the range 0.1-3.8 M HC104.