Selective electrooxidation of ethylene glycol on cobalt foam matrix composites

Abstract

Glycolic acid has low toxicity, high biodegradability, high water solubility and is a virtually non-volatile organic compound. Glycolic acid is widely used in pharmaceuticals, biodegradable polymers, dermatological medicine, chemical cleaning and so on; its synthesis method has also attracted the interest of many researchers. Herein, the electrodes PdAgPt/Co and PdAgSn/Co with good electrocatalytic activity toward ethylene glycol were prepared, which are cobalt foam-based working electrodes prepared by loading three metals. Glycolic acid was synthetized from ethylene glycol by selective electrochemical oxidation method. PdAgPt/Co has better catalytic activity for the selective electrolytic oxidation of ethylene glycol; the relevant factors were explored with PdAgPt/Co as the working electrode. The final reaction selectivity obtained was 93.6%, the conversion rate was 68.5%, which had good selectivity and relatively high conversion rate. The electrodes involved in the experimental process were subjected to electrochemical tests (CV, LSV, I-t, EIS) and structural characterization (SEM, XRD, XPS). The electrochemical tests served to verify the catalytic activity of the electrode, and the structural characterization provided an explanation of the relationship between the structure of PdAgPt/Co and its catalytic activity.