Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Pahang, Malaysia
  • 2 Innovative Catalysis Program, Key Laboratory of Organic Optoelectronics & Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
  • 3 Faculty of Engineering and Technology, DRB-HICOM University of Automotive Malaysia, 26607 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
J Nanosci Nanotechnol, 2020 09 01;20(9):5916-5927.
PMID: 32331197 DOI: 10.1166/jnn.2020.18549

Abstract

Glycerol electro-oxidation offers a green route to produce the high value added chemicals. Here in, we report the glycerol electro-oxidation over a series of multi walled carbon nano tubes supported monometallic (Pt/CNT and Pd/CNT) and bimetallic (Pt-Pd/CNT) catalysts in alkaline medium. The cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and chronoamperometry measurements were used to evaluate the activity and stability of the catalysts. The Pt-Pd/CNT electrocatalyst exhibited the highest activity in terms of higher current density (129.25 A/m²) and electrochemical surface area (382 m²/g). The glycerol electro-oxidation products formed at a potential of 0.013 V were analyzed systematically by high performance liquid chromatography. Overall, six compounds were found including mesoxalic acid, 1,3-dihydroxyacetone, glyceraldehyde, glyceric acid, tartronic acid and oxalic acid. A highest mesoxalic acid selectivity of 86.42% was obtained for Pt-Pd/CNT catalyst while a maximum tartronic acid selectivity of 50.17% and 46.02% was achieved for Pd/CNT and Pt/CNT respectively. It was found that the introduction of Pd into Pt/CNT lattice facilitated the formation of C3 products in terms of maximum selectivity achieved (86.42%) while the monometallic catalysts (Pd/CNT and Pt/CNT) showed a poor performance in comparison to their counterpart.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.