ELECTROCHEMICAL AND OXYGEN REDUCTION BEHAVIOR OF SOLID SILVER-BISMUTHANTIMONY ELECTRODES IN KOH SOLUTIONS

Oxygen reduction behaviour at silver-low bismuth/antimony electrodes w as investigated by electrochemical methods in KOH solutions. The elect rochemical redox characteristics such as peak multiplicity, peak curre nts and peak potentials on these electrodes under both potentiostatic steady state and cyclic voltammetric conditions were obtained. The ano malies associated with the redox peak potential values both in the ano dic and cathodic branches of the cyclic voltammograms were attributed to the distinct electrochemical behaviour of bismuth/antimony on the e lectrode surface along with silver. The behaviour of these electrodes for the electrocatalytic cathodic reduction of oxygen was also investi gated both by potentiostatic steady state and cyclic voltammetric tech niques under rotating conditions. The kinetic parameters corresponding to the electrochemical reduction of oxygen on these electrodes were o btained. These electrodes were ranked with respect to their electrocat alytic activity both for the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions.