Preliminary investigation on the electrochemical activity of butanol isomers as potential fuel for direct alcohol fuel cell

© The Electrochemical Society. A preliminary investigation of electrocatalytic oxidation activity of butanol isomers has been carried out to study their potential as fuels for direct alcohol fuel cells. The electrochemical study was carried out on Pt and Pd electrodes using a three electrode cell set up in alkaline media. The primary alcohol isomers of butanol were observed to behave similarly in their electrochemical reactions whereas 2-butanol showed completely different oxidation features on both catalysts. For example, no poisoning effects were observed for 2- butanol unlike for the primary butanol isomers. In contrast, tert-butanol did not show any oxidation reaction on Pt and Pd electrodes. Furthermore, Pd was not active at all in acidic media for butanol oxidation. The reactivity of butanol isomers were found to be in the order n-butanol>iso-butanol>2-butanol>tert-butanol based on the oxidation current density values.