Effect of Structured Atomic Gold on Electrooxidation of Alcohols in Alkaline Medium

Survey of cyclic voltammograms of lower aliphatic alcohols in 1 M KOH recorded at electrodes containing atomic gold is presented. The atomically structured gold is placed in polyaniline, which is deposited on a platinum electrode. The electrochemical behavior of these atomic gold electrodes (AGE) is compared with Pt/polyaniline electrode without gold and with Pt/polyaniline electrode containing “unstructured” nanoclusters of Au. The conditions were identical for all of the experiments. This allows direct visual comparison of the effect of atomic structuring. The electrochemical activity of the AGEs is dominated by the odd–even pattern of reactivity, and it is superimposed on specific electrochemical behavior of individual alcohols.Graphical Abstract

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