The electrocatalytic activity and selectivity of Pd and Pt for the electro-oxidation of aqueous SO2 as well as other model electro-oxidation and electro-reduction reactions.

Major pressure is placed on our energy resources because of environmental aspects and the increased shortages of energy resources.  Hydrogen gas (H2) is an excellent energy carrier, with one of the advantages of using H2 being that water is the only by-product.  The problem for using H2 is that there is no process yet for the production of H2 on large-scale that is efficient and cost-effective.  Due to the expensive nature of platinum (Pt) that is used as a catalyst, the Hybrid Sulphur Cycle (HyS) is not considered very cost-effective. The electro-oxidation of SO2 in aqueous solutions is of industrial importance. This study mainly investigates the efficiency of clean platinum group metals (PGM’s) as catalyst for the electro-oxidation of SO2 in aqueous solution via cyclic voltammetry and linear polarization on rotating disk electrode (RDE).  The catalysts that were investigated were smooth polycrystalline Pt and palladium (Pd) for comparison to the electro-catalytic activity of clean PGM’s.

Supervisors: Dr Cobus Kriek, Prof. Vijay Ramani

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