Electrochemical oxidation of alcoholamines at gold

Oxygen-driven, high-efficiency production of nitrogen-doped carbon dots from alkanolamines and their application for two-photon cellular imaging

A novel oxygen-driven method has been developed for low-cost, large-scale, and high-efficiency production of nitrogen-doped carbon dots (N-C-dots) using various alkanolamines as both precursors and solvents.

Electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohols on gold in alkaline media: base or gold catalysis?

On the basis of a comparison of the oxidation activity of a series of similar alcohols with varying pK(a) on gold electrodes in alkaline solution, we find that the first deprotonation is base catalyzed, and the second deprotonation is fast but gold catalyzed. The base catalysis follows a Hammett-type correlation with pK(a), and dominates overall reactivity for a series of similar alcohols. The high oxidation activity on gold compared to platinum for some of the alcohols is related to the high resistance of gold toward the formation of poisoning surface oxides. These results indicate that base catalysis is the main driver behind the high oxidation activity of many organic fuels on fuel cell anodes in alkaline media, and not the catalyst interaction with hydroxide.