Study of electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol in alkaline media on a nickel/polymer modified carbon paste electrode

The electrooxidation of ethanol is considerably interest, as in terms of its importance for practical electrocatalytic application in liquid fuel cells and because of its similarity to methanol [1]. It was also found that ethanol has comparable electrochemical activity to that of methanol. Since ethanol is a product which could be obtained from renewable sources, it is of special interest for chemical industries. The mechanism and kinetics of ethanol oxidation have been studied under a wide range of conditions and on various electrodes [2, 3]. Among them, nickel is an effective and cheap catalyst for ethanol electrooxidation [4, 5]. In this work, poly (N-methylaniline) was prepared by electropolymerization of aqueous solution of monomer at the surface of carbon paste electrode using galvanostat method. Then Ni (II) ions was incorporated into the polymeric film by immersion of the electrode in NiSO4 solution.Therefore poly (N-methylaniline)- nickel modified carbon paste electrode (Ni/PNMA/MCPE) was prepared. The surface coverage (Г=1.4×10-4mol cm-2) of immobilized active substance i.e. Ni (II), in film was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry.