Kinetics and Mechanism of Electrolysis of Oxalic Acid in Nitric Acid Solution

The electrolytic destruction of oxalic acid （OA） in nitric acid solution was studied. Using platinized titanium （Pt-Ti） electrode as anode and titanium as cathode， the electrolysis of OA and the effect factors were experimentally investigated under the series of constant current density. Based on the results， the optimal operation parameters are established as follows： the current density of 25-37 mA/cm²， nitric acid concentration of 2-3 mol/L and the temperature of 30-40 ℃， meanwhile a small quantity of metallic ions， such as Fe³⁺， MnO-₄， Ag+， can catalyze the electrolysis of OA to increase the destruction efficiency. The results of comparative experiments show that the destruction of OA with the electrochemical oxidation method is more effective than that with KMnO4 boiling oxidation method.