Catalytic electro-oxidation of hydrazine by thymol based-modified glassy carbon electrode

In the present, thymol based new organic compounds (4A , 4B and 4C) are designed and synthesized via Steglich Esterification Reactions and Pd-catalyst Sonogashira Coupling Reactions. After isolation and characterization, thymol based hybrid molecules are used for hydrazine (N2H4) electrooxidation reactions as anode catalysts. A variety of metal based anode catalyst have been reported in literature, but this study may be the first study for thymole based hybrid molecules as an anode catalyst in fuel cells. The performance of hybrid molecules was investigated via cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in hydrazine solution. Hybrid 2-isopropyl-5-methylphenyl-4-oxo-4-(5-(p-tolylethynyl)thiophen-2-yl)butanoate (4C) gives the highest performance as 3.66 mAcm(-2) (17.24 mAmg(-1)). Our results displayed that natural products like thymol derivatives may be new generation anode catalyst for fuel cells, and they may be alternative for expensive Pd and Pt based metal anode catalyst.

Automated summary

In this study, thymol based hybrid molecules were synthesized and used as anode catalysts in fuel cells. The performance of these hybrid molecules was tested and they showed potential as a new generation anode catalyst for fuel cells.