The Electro-Oxidation of Ethanol in Alkaline Medium at Different Catalyst Metals

In this contribution, the electro-oxidation of ethanol in alkaline medium is studied with differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS). Starting from platinum as model catalyst, the influence of the catalyst on the ethanol oxidation reaction is investigated with other metals, i.e. palladium, gold and nickel. It was found that the reaction products and their current efficiencies depend strongly on the catalyst used. At platinum the reaction to acetate is the major current producing path while the current efficiency for carbon dioxide is low. At higher ethanol concentrations ethyl acetate is formed. During the ethanol oxidation at palladium the current efficiency for acetate is even higher and only traces of carbon dioxide are formed. However, an ethyl acetate formation was not observed. Gold shows a significant activity for the ethanol oxidation with ethyl acetate being the only detected product. The activity of nickel towards the ethanol oxidation in alkaline medium is negligible.