Nickel hydroxide deposited indium tin oxide electrodes as electrocatalysts for direct oxidation of carbohydrates in alkaline medium

In this work, the direct electrochemical oxidation of carbohydrates using nickel hydroxide modified indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes in alkaline medium is demonstrated; suggesting the feasibility of using carbohydrates as a novel fuel in alkaline fuel cells applications. The chosen monosaccharides are namely glucose and fructose; disaccharides such as sucrose and lactose; and sugar acid like ascorbic acid for this study. ITO electrodes are chemically modified using a hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystalline phase template electrodeposition of nickel. Structural morphology, growth, orientation and electrochemical behaviour of Ni deposits are characterized using SEM, XRD, XPS and cyclic voltammetry (CV), respectively. Further electrochemical potential cycling process in alkaline medium is employed to convert these Ni deposits into corresponding nickel hydroxide modified electrodes. These electrodes are used as novel platform to perform the electrocatalytic oxidation of various carbohydrates in alkaline medium. It was found that bare and Ni coated ITO electrodes are inactive towards carbohydrates oxidation. The heterogeneous rate constant values are determined and calculated to be two orders of magnitude higher in the case of template method when compared to non-template technique. The observed effect is attributed to the synergistic effect of higher surface area of these deposits and catalytic ability of Ni(II)/Ni(III) redox couple.

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► Possibility of using carbohydrates as a new and cheap fuel for alkaline fuel cells.
► Effective electrocatalyst for direct oxidation of carbohydrates in alkaline medium.
► Investigation on the fundamental aspects in order to understand the kinetics.
► Heterogeneous rate constant is enhanced by 2 orders for template deposited materials.
► Preparation of porous & high surface area Ni electrodes using template deposition.