Study of the effect of number of layers on the electrosynthesis of cobalt (III) acetate in a bipolar packed-bed flow reactor

Cobalt(III) acetate, which is an important oxidizing agent and catalyst in organic reactions, was electrosynthesized from cobalt(II) acetate solution in a bipolar packed-bed flow reactor. In order to determine the effect of the number of layers on the yield of cobalt(III) acetate, experiments were performed in three different lengths of bipolar electrode cells, namely 16, 29 and 55 layers of graphite Raschig rings. The experiments were carried out at controlled potentials of 50-450 V, measuring the total current and using the solution (5% $H_2O$, 95% $CH_3COOH$, 0.06MCo$(CH_3COO)_2$.4$H_2O$, 0.2M $CH_3COONa.3H_2O)$ at 298 K and 0.133 L.h-1 flow rate. According to the experimental results, the production of cobalt(III) acetate with the conversion ratio of 43% and the space-time yield of 35.9 kg.m-3.h-1 showed that 29 layers was the optimum.