Alcohol oxidation over Co-Ni based electrocatalysts

Abstract

Producing energy has been a need of the hour from several decades. Scientists are trying to make sustainable development for the sources of energy. Water splitting has been a great alternative for switching to conventional sources but it requires an input voltage of 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) excluding the kinetic parameters. Alcohols could be used for the oxidation on the anode as it requires lower input potentials and simultaneously reduce water into hydrogen. Glycerol has been an easy-to-get chemical which is a by-product of biodiesel industry. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) can be replaced by glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) on the anode for high efficiency and durability to get hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on the cathode. Also, the valorization of glycerol could lead to valuable products which are widely used in cosmetics industry. Non-precious-metal-based borides have been investigated to be efficient for OER. Cobalt and Nickel borides were found to be active for OER as well as alcohol oxidation reaction (AOR). The combination of Co and Ni together with Boron improves the activity for OER and other alcohol oxidation reactions due to combined or synergistic effects. The catalyst with Nafion and Sustainion had a significant change in the activity towards GOR. The influence of ionomers didn’t affect the selectivity of the products but influenced the efficiency of the alcohol conversion on the investigated catalysts.