a b s t r a c tCyclic voltammetry is used to study the role of 5,10,15,20-tetraphenyl-21H,23H-porphine (H 2 TPP) in the reduction of molecular oxygen by decamethylferrocene (DMFc) at the polarized water|1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) interface. It is shown that this rather slow reaction proceeds remarkably faster in the presence of tetraphenylporphyrin monoacid (H 3 TPP + ) and diacid (H 4 TPP 2+ ), which are formed in DCE by the successive transfer of two protons from the acidified aqueous phase. A mechanism is proposed, which includes the formation of adduct between H 3 TPP + or H 4 TPP 2+ and O 2 that is followed by electron transfer from DMFc to the adduct leading to the observed production of DMFc + and to the regeneration of H 2 TPP or H 3 TPP + , respectively.