Oxidation of maleic acid under control of the catalyst potential in a pressurized electrochemical reactor

Maleic acid was oxidized on a platinized-platinum catalyst in a pressurized electrochemical reactor, at temperatures higher than 343 K, in a potential range where an active adsorbed intermediate is formed. In the presence of O-2, when potential was either spontaneously established or imposed by a po tentiostat, similar activities and similar evolution of activities versus p otential values were obtained. These results could imply that the same mech anism occurs, involving gaseous oxygen as oxygen source. Lower activities w ere obtained in electrocatalytic oxidation, in the absence of gaseous oxyge n, involving a different mechanism. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.