N. Furuya et H. Aikawa, Comparative study of oxygen cathodes loaded with Ag and Pt catalysts in chlor-alkali membrane cells, ELECTR ACT, 45(25-26), 2000, pp. 4251-4256
Basic electrocatalytic properties as well as the lifetime of the oxygen cat
hodes loaded with platinum and silver catalyst were studied under the pract
ical conditions of chlor-alkali electrolysis as a function of the catalyst
loading. In general, catalytic activity of the cathode loaded with platinum
catalyst is superior to that loaded with silver catalyst. Long-term lifeti
me tests have shown, however, that the cathode loaded with 2.63 mg/cm(2) Ag
catalyst has lifetime longer than 3 years under the practical chlor-alkali
electrolysis conditions, while the cathode loaded with 0.56 mg/cm(2) Pt ca
talyst has shown potentiality to have lifetime over 2 years. The lifetime o
f the oxygen cathodes could be extended further by optimizing the catalyst
loading. From these results wt: could anticipate practical applications of
the oxygen cathodes loaded with Ag catalyst instead of the cathodes with Pt
catalyst. Application of the oxygen cathodes to the practical chlor-alkali
electrolysis would contribute greatly to reduction of the power requiremen
t in the industry. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.