Fuel cells for electro-organic synthesis

Fuel cells as alternative sources of electric energy are getting increasing attention mainly due to flexibility in their application and environmentally friendly operation. Among the main utilisation areas fuels cells are used to produce electricity in rural areas, on ships and submarines, or serve as simple current supplies for computers and other instruments in everyday life.
The purpose of the diploma work is to explore the possibility to use fuel cells for the production of organic compounds with potential industrial application. Carrying out organic reactions in a fuel cell would offer the opportunity to reduce or avoid the utilisation of additional chemicals i.e. solvents or supporting electrolyte, which could be a great advantage to conventional organic and/or electro-organic synthesis. On the other hand the selectivity which is usually very high in electro-organic processes could be maintained, which could make the whole process more attractive. Aliphatic and aromatic amino compounds have high industrial interest. Among the aromatic amino compounds toluene diamine (TDA) is primarily used in the TDI synthesis, which is the main intermediate of polyurethane production.
The objective of the diploma work is to investigate the possibility to reduce 2,4- and 2,6- di-nitro toluene to their corresponding amino compounds in a conventional fuel cell. The main task would be to find the best possible conditions for the electrosynthesis of the 2,4- and 2,6-diamino toluene. That would include the separation and identification of the products and intermediates obtained during the reaction, and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the substrates and the main products.
The diploma would be carried out in collaboration between Applied Electrochemistry at KTH and Vattenfall Utveckling´s Electrochemical group.