Electrochemical analysis and convection-enhanced mass transfer synergistic effect of MnOx/Ti membrane electrode for alcohol oxidation

Abstract The different electrocatalytic reactors could be constructed for the electrocatalytic oxidation of 2,2,3,3-tetrafluoro-1-propanol (TFP) with two typical MnO x /Ti electrodes, i.e. the electrocatalytic membrane reactor (ECMR) with the Ti membrane electrode and the electrocatalytic reactor (ECR) with the traditional Ti plate electrode. For the electro-oxidation of TFP, the conversion with membrane electrode (70.1%) in the ECMR was 3.3 and 1.7 times higher than that of the membrane electrode without permeate flow (40.8%) in the ECMR and the plate electrode (21.5%) in the ECR, respectively. Obviously, the pore structure of membrane and convection-enhanced mass transfer in the ECMR dramatically improved the catalytic activity towards the electro-oxidation of TFP. The specific surface area of porous electrode was 2.22 m 2 ·g − 1 . The surface area of plate electrode was 2.26 cm 2 (1.13 cm 2  × 2). In addition, the electrochemical results showed that the mass diffusion coefficient of the MnO x /Ti membrane electrode (1.80 × 10 − 6  cm 2 ·s − 1 ) could be increased to 6.87 × 10 − 6  cm 2 ·s − 1 at the certain flow rate with pump, confirming the lower resistance of mass transfer due to the convection-enhanced mass transfer during the operation of the ECMR. Hence, the porous structure and convection-enhanced mass transfer would improve the electrochemical property of the membrane electrode and the catalytic performance of the ECMR, which could give guideline for the design and application of the porous electrode and electrochemical reactor.