The electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol using a new modified electrode based on NiCo2O4 nanoparticles incorporated into zeolite-4A

Abstract

In this work, a new catalyst based on carbon paste (CP) modified by spinel NiCo2O4 nanoparticles and zeolite-4A was proposed and used for the electrochemical oxidation of methanol. NiCo2O4@zeolite-4A was obtained through the calcination of the physical mixture of NiCo2O4 and zeolite-4A. Their physicochemical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectra (SEM-EDS), and FT-IR techniques. The electrocatalytic performance of modified electrode based on NiCo2O4@zeolite-4A was tested using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperomerty (CA). The result of cyclic voltammetry indicated a significant rise in the oxidation current on the surface of NiCo2O4@zeolite-4A/CPE modified electrode. The rate constant for the catalytic reaction (k) of methanol was calculated by means of a chronoamperometric technique. To sum up, the incorporation of NiCo2O4 nanoparticles into zeolite-4A provided the binary electroactive sites for catalysis of methanol oxidation as it exhibited a long-term stability for catalytic reaction, and thus a promising application.