Insights of glycerol electrooxidation on polycrystalline silver electrode

•The active species of glycerol electrooxidation in alkaline media is glyceroxide.•Silver is an active eletrocatalyst for glycerol electrooxidation reaction in alkaline media.•Glycerol electrooxidation on silver electrode produces formic, glycolic and glyceric acids in alkaline media.

This work presents a detailed study of silver electrode activity toward glycerol electrooxidation reaction (GEOR) in alkaline media. The effect of pH and glycerol concentration on GEOR kinetics was investigated by cyclic voltammetry technique. It has been found that hydroxyl ions concentration leads to an oxidation current increase, which indicates that glyceroxide could be the active species for GEOR. The presence of silver oxide layer inhibits the glycerol oxidation process, reaching maximum current densities of 2.3 mA cm− 2 (1 M glycerol in 1 M NaOH). HPLC studies indicate that formic, glycolic and glyceric acids are the main products.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (159KB)Download full-size image