This study investigates the impact of acetone on the electrochemical behaviour of 3D nickel foam electrodes in 0.1 M NaOH solution, with respect to the kinetics of alkaline water electrolysis (hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions: HER and OER, respectively). Cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel polarisation techniques were employed to investigate the kinetics of these processes for (CH3)2C=O concentrations ranging from 1.0 × 10−5 to 0.1 M. The fundamental conclusions of this work are related to the fact that acetone, at moderate concentrations, was found to significantly facilitate the kinetics of both the HER and the OER processes, when examined on unmodified Ni foam electrodes. Conversely, the presence of acetone in working electrolyte for a Ru-activated nickel foam electrode resulted in a radical inhibition of the HER kinetics. The above is strongly believed to be associated with an electrode surface poisoning effect, in relation to the Ru sites’ blockage by an extensive, flat/side-on coordination of adsorbed acetone molecules. Interestingly, in the presence of Ru, acetone had practically no effect on the recorded OER rates. The above indicates that some organic additives (e.g., acetone) might exhibit significant, although strongly catalyst-dependent, opportunities for facilitation of the industrial alkaline water electrolysis process.
Kwiatkowska et al. (Mon,) studied this question.