Effect of electrode materials on the kinetics of the electro-reduction of peroxyacetic acid

Electrochemical behavior of peroxyacetic acid (PAA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) was examined at various metal and carbon electrodes (i.e., Au, Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd, Rh, Ti, W, Hg, Ni, Fe, glassy carbon (GC), and basal-plane pyrolytic graphite (BPG)) in 0.1 M acetate buffer solution (pH 5.5) using potentiostatic (i.e., cyclic voltammetry and rotating disk electrode voltammetry) and galvanostatic techniques. It was found that the electro-reductions of PAA and H2O2 are highly sensitive to electrode material. Both species were found to be electrochemically and separately reduced at Au, Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd, GC, and BPG electrodes. On the other hand, at Fe, Ni, Hg, Rh, Ti, and W electrodes, voltammetric response for the PAA reduction was not obviously observed. The kinetics of electro-reduction of PAA in 0.1 M acetate buffer solution was studied at Au, Ag, and GC electrodes in details, and the relevant kinetic parameters (i.e., the exchange current density, j0, the standard rate constant, k0, and cathodic transfer coefficient, αc) were estimated from the Tafel plots. The cyclic voltammetric reduction peak potentials obtained for the PAA reduction at Au, Ag, and GC electrodes were compared with those calculated using the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters obtained under the same experimental conditions. The measured and calculated reduction peak potentials at each electrode were found to be in agreement with each other, indicating that the evaluated values of kinetic parameters for the reduction of PAA at Au, Ag, and GC electrodes are reasonable