Electrochemical reduction of oxygen on gold and boron-doped diamond electrodes in ambient temperature, molten acetamide–urea–ammonium nitrate eutectic melt

The electrochemical reduction of oxygen has been studied on gold, boron-doped diamond (BDD) and glassy carbon (GC) electrodes in a ternary eutectic mixture of acetamide (CH3CONH2), urea (NH2CONH2) and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3). Cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), chronoamperometry and rotating disk electrode (RDE) voltammetry techniques have been employed to follow oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The mechanism for the electrochemical reduction of oxygen on polycrystalline gold involves 2-step, 2-electron pathways of O2 to H2O2 and further reduction of H2O2 to H2O. The first 2-electron reduction of O2 to H2O2 passes through superoxide intermediate by 1-electron reduction of oxygen. Kinetic results suggest that the initial 1-electron reduction of oxygen to HO2 is the rate-determining step of ORR on gold surfaces. The chronoamperometric and RDE studies show a potential dependent change in the number of electrons on gold electrode. The oxygen reduction reaction on boron-doped diamond (BDD) seems to proceed via a direct 4-electron process. The reduction of oxygen on the glassy carbon (GC) electrode is a single step, irreversible, diffusion limited 2-electron reduction process to peroxide.