Kinetic study of ethanol and methanol electro-oxidation on Pd-vulcan XC-72R/Cu electrocatalyst in alkaline media

Abstract

Abstract In this study , palladium nano-particles were electro deposited galvano - statically on carbon black powder (Vulcan XC -72R). The catalytic activity for electro - oxidation of ethanol and methanol in alkaline media were studied by cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry techniques. The results indicated that the electro-oxidation of ethanol and methanol strongly depends on adsorbed species on the electro catalyst layer. Effects of ethanol, methanol and KOH concentration on the electrocatalytic proper ties of the synthesized electro catalysts during electro-oxidation reactions were evaluated by linear sweep voltammetry with various scan rates. It can be declared that the overall rate equations for ethanol electro-oxidation and methanol electro - oxidation on Palladium / Vulcan in alkaline media were developed. It has been shown that the Pd-C particles with mass loading of 0.11 mg cm–2 have superior catalytic activity. Finally, two overall rate equations were developed for EOR and MOR.

Keywords

• ethanol
• methanol
• electro-oxidation
• kinetics
• direct alcohol fuel cell