Study On Methane Electrocatalytic Oxidation At Pd And Au Electrode

Chapter 1: Characteristics and application of methane was introduced. The principle , material used and researching development related to elelctro-oxidation of methane are reviewed.Chapter 2: Roughened palladium electrode (RP) was prepared by a simple method and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry with redox probe potassium ferricyanide. Electro-oxidation of methane on roughened palladium electrode and smooth Pd electrode was studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Higher electro-catalytic activity and faster response for the electro-oxidation of methane on roughened palladium electrode than smooth Pd electrode was found in acidic media at ambient temperature. Different pulse voltammogram (DPV) was used to study the response of roughened palladium electrode to various concentration of methane and the increase in the current is proportional to the methane concentration. The RP electrode may be great potential in direct methane fuel cells and analytical application at ambient temperature. The effect of temperature to the smooth and roughened Pd electrode has been studied in detail. Influence of temperature on the electro-oxidation of methane on roughened Pd electrode was investigated. The electro-activity of smooth and roughened Pd electrode will be increase with temperature.Chapter 3: Thin Pd film modified Au electrodes (Pd/Au) was obtained through a cyclic potential sweep in the solution containing Pd (II) ions on Au electrode. The same method was adopted for the preparation of WCNTs-Pd/Au electrode by depositing palladium nanoparticles onto a Nafion-solubilized carbon nanotube to Au electrode. The voltammetric characterization of Pd/Au electrode was studied. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometric i-t curve were used to electro-oxidation of methane on WCNTs-Pd/Au, Pd/Au, Au and Pd electrode in H₂SO₄ electrolyte. The highest electro-catalytic activity of electrodes mentioned above was WCNTs-Pd/Au electrode, followed by Pd/Au electrode, then Pd electrode, and Au electrode was the lowest.Chapter 4: The work mentioned above had been surmarized and the following work was proposed.