Electrocatalysis on Oxide-Stabilized, High-Surface Area Carbon Electrodes

A procedure is described for preparing and derivatizing novel, high surface area electrodes consisting of thin layers of nanostructured ITO (Sn(IV)-doped indium tin oxide, nano ITO) on reticulated vitreous carbon (RVC) to give RVC| nano ITO. The resulting hybrid electrodes are highly stabilized oxidatively. They were surface-derivatized by phosphonate binding of the electrocatalyst, [Ru(Mebimpy)(4,4′-((HO) 2 OPCH 2 ) 2 bpy)(OH 2 )] 2+ (Mebimpy = 2,6-bis(1-methylbenzimidazol-2-yl)pyridine; bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) ( 1-PO 3 H 2 ) to give RVC| nano ITO-Ru II -OH 2 2+ . The redox properties of the catalyst are retained on the electrode surface. Electrocatalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde occurs with a 75% Faradaic efficiency compared to 57% on nano ITO. Electrocatalytic water oxidation at 1.4 V vs SCE on derivatized RVC| nano ITO electrode with an internal surface area of 19.5 cm 2 produced 7.3 μmoles of O 2 in 70% Faradaic yield in 50 min.