Electrochemical oxidation of lignin for the production of value-added chemicals on Ni-Co bimetallic electrocatalysts

Abstract Lignin has been submitted to electrochemical oxidation in the presence of nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co) and Ni-Co bimetallic electrocatalysts, which were prepared by a simple electrochemical deposition process. The composition and morphology of the catalyst were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA). The effects of the three electrocatalysts on the electrochemical oxidation of lignin were observed by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The degradation products were quantitatively analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The rate of electrochemical oxidation of lignin is higher with Ni-Co bimetallic electrocatalyst with higher Co contents and the main products obtained were vanillin, apocynin and 3-methylbenzaldehyde.