Amorphous Alloy Electrodes for Electro-oxidation of Propane

摘要

Amorphous Ni-40Nb alloys containing one atomic per cent of platinum group metals were prepared by vrid Quenching and were employed for electro-oxidation of propane in 1 M H_2SO_4 saturated with propane gas at 30 deg C. Two types of electrodes were used; one is ribbon-shaped electrode activated by immersion in HF solution and subsequent cyclic polarization in the sulfuric acid solution, and another one is gas-diffusion electrode by using alloy powder catalysts obtained by prolonged immersion of the amorphous alloys in HF solution. The electrode prepared from amorphous alloys containing rhodium and ruthenium is the most active for propane oxidation and shows considerably higher than that of platinized platinum. The optimum content appeared to be Ni-40Nb-0.5 at percent Ru-0.5 at percent Rh. The activity for the gas-diffusion electrode is remarkably higher than that of the ribbon-shaped electrode.