Investigation of sodium borohydride and hydrazine oxidation on gold nanoparticles modified zinc–cobalt coating

This work presents the investigation of the electrochemical oxidation of hydrazine and sodium borohydride ions in alkaline solutions on the Au nanoparticles modified ZnCo coating surface, which was deposited on the titanium substrate (termed as AuZnCo/Ti). The AuZnCo/Ti catalysts were prepared via a facile electrochemical deposition technique followed by a simple and low-cost galvanic displacement. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy were used for characterization of the prepared catalysts surface morphology, structure and composition, whereas their electrocatalytic behaviour was investigated for the electrochemical oxidation of hydrazine and sodium borohydride in an alkaline medium using cyclic voltammetry. It has been determined that the AuZnCo/Ti catalysts with Au loadings of 31, 63 and 306 µg cm–2 show enhanced catalytic activity towards the electrochemical oxidation of both hydrazine and sodium borohydride as compared to that of the ZnCo/Ti catalyst.