Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Methanol Employing Ni-Al LDH Nanoparticles Decorated polymer Film on a Glassy Carbon Electrode

In the recent years, inorganic layered materials have attracted growing interest for use in various fields owing to their favorable properties, including low cost, high thermal stability and suitable catalytic activity. Layered double hydroxides (LDH) belong to a class of anionic clay or hydrotalcite-like clays consist of stacked brucite-type octahedral layers with anions and water molecules occupying the interlayer spaces, family providing numerous applications due to their unique physicochemical properties [1]. Electrochemical applications of LDH to electrochemical sensors, electrocatalysts, dye-sensitized solar cells and super capacitors were presented. In the fuel cell applications, recently Ni-Al LDH has been reported to catalyze the electrooxidation of primary alcohols and sugars [2]. In this work, for the first time, a promising electrocatalyst was developed based on a layer process by electropolymerization of ortho-aminophenol (OAP) on the surface of a nanoporous glassy carbon electrode was constructed as a proper polymeric framework for deposition of NiAl LDH nanoparticles. After physicochemical characterizations of Ni-Al LDH /poly(OPA)/ nanoporous/ GCE, its electrocatalytic and stability characterizations toward methanol oxidation in alkaline media were investigated in detail by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. Results showed that, the electrocatalytic activity of the Ni-Al LDH/poly(OPA)/nanoporous/GCE electrode is much higher than those of unmodified electrode under similar experimental conditions, showing the possibility of attaining good electrocatalytic anodes for fuel cells. Kinetic parameters such as the electron transfer coefficient (α) and the number of electrons involved in the rate determining step (nα) for the oxidation of methanol were determined utilizing cyclic voltammetry (CV).