Electro-catalytic oxidation of polyols is a very important path towards the production of high value chemicals. The electro-oxidation of glycerol using precious metals such as Au and Pt has been studied and known to be a source of several end products and has also been utilized in the concept of direct glycerol fuel cells to produce electrical energy additionally [1]. Herein an electro-catalyst comprising a non-noble metal alloy composition, namely nickel, copper and tin on carbon support have been fabricated using the electroless deposition method. The electrochemical activity of the prepared catalysts towards the glycerol oxidation reaction in acidic medium have then been evaluated using physical characterization, electrochemical and chromatographic methods. In the current study, the concept is applied to experimentally demonstrate the working principles of a glycerol-fed redox flow battery using an aqueous solution of a Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ couple as cathode [2]. Constant potential electrolysis coupled with high performance liquid chromatography were used to identify the various compounds generated as a result of the electro-catalytic conversion of glycerol.

References

1. Li W., Xin L., Zhang Z., Wang Z. (2012) Simultaneous Generation of Mesoxalic Acid and Electricity from Glycerol on a Gold Anode Catalyst in Anion-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells ChemCatChem Vol 4 1105-1114
2. J, Kalu E. and Yeboah Y. (2017) A Group Additivity based-thermodynamic analysis of a conceptual glycerol/ferric redox flow battery ECS Transactions, 77 (11) 2005-2010