Iron Oxide Nanoparticles-assisted Electrochemical Oxidation of Salicylaldehyde

In this study, Fe-oxide-based NPs (Fe2O3 NPs) were prepared via precipitation strategy, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), X-ray photo-reduction spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry (CV). The characterization data indicated that prepared Fe-based NPs possessed α-Fe2O3 phase with 50-60 nm diameter. Next, the CV technique was employed to test the ability of the prepared Fe2O3 NPs toward electrochemical oxidation of salicylaldehyde at a glassy carbon electrode (3 mm diameter) in an alkaline electrolyte. The results demonstrated that the electrochemical oxidation of salicylaldehyde followed first-order kinetics with a hydroxyl-radical aided process, requiring 18.4 kJ/mol activation energy at ambient temperature.