Kinetics of Ethanol Electrooxidation at a Modified Platinum Electrode in 0.1M Perchloric acid

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Author for correspondence. Chemistry Administration, Cairo, Egypt.

2 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.

3 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

The present paper reports cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies on electrooxidation of ethanol at a modified Pt electrode surface in 0.1M perchloric acid solution. The activity of Pt electrode towards ethanol oxidation increases with increasing number of cycles and concentration of ethanol. Cyclic voltammetry was also used to investigate the electrochemical and thermochemical parameters related to electrooxidation of ethanol under the influence of temperature. The effect of temperature was carried out for a temperature range of 283–303 K. Apparent activation energies of the oxidation reactions on a modified Pt electrode were determined. The enhancement is discussed and attributed to the mechanism of oxidation that is likely to be dissociative chemisorptions involving electron transfer. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters values for the electrooxidation process Ea*, ΔG*, ΔH* and ΔS* have been computed and discussed. The high activation energy for the process suggests that C–C bond cleavage is the rate determining step.

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