Electrochemical and oxygen reduction behaviour of solid silver-bismuth/antimony electrodes in KOH solutions

Abstract

Oxygen reduction behaviour at silver-low bismuth/antimony electrodes was investigated by electrochemical methods in KOH solutions. The electrochemical redox characteristics such as peak multiplicity, peak currents and peak potentials on these electrodes under both potentiostatic steady state and cyclic voltammetric conditions were obtained. The anomalies associated with the redox peak potential values both in the anodic and cathodic branches of the cyclic voltammograms were attributed to the distinct electrochemical behaviour of bismuth/antimony on the electrode surface along with silver. The behaviour of these electrodes for the electrocatalytic cathodic reduction of oxygen was also investigated both by potentiostatic steady state and cyclic voltammetric techniques under rotating conditions. The kinetic parameters corresponding to the electrochemical reduction of oxygen on these electrodes were obtained. These electrodes were ranked with respect to their electrocatalytic activity both for the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions.