## 4 Discussion
This follows the trend of Acidic Electrolytes being more effective than Alkaline Electrolytes in the literature. The cell output potential indicates how each electrode would act as an electrochemical catalyst (as an anode or cathode). This is determined by the sign of the output potential values when measuring the electrodes with a digital multimeter. Attaching the cathode to the positive lead and the negative lead to the anode will result in a positive electrical potential reading. If there is a negative sign, that means the leads were connected in reverse. In this experiment, the novel electrodes act as cathodes when paired with the glassy carbon electrode in the Alkaline Electrolyte. All the rare earth metal electrodes except for Dy displayed cathodic catalytic activity when paired with the Pt and Ni electrodes. Other literature has predicted that the further the open circuit potential between two electrodes is, the more likely for the pair to generate a greater output potential in a fuel cell setup [21]. This assumption was not entirely accurate in this experiment. Pairing Gd with Ta or Tb in an alkaline peroxide should have yielded the highest output potential; however, as Table 5 shows, this is not the case. Therefore, there may be other mechanisms at play when predicting the output potential from a two-electrode fuel cell setup. This nuance is not commonly reported in other published papers for hydrogen peroxide fuel cells. The Dy electrode operates similarly to Er, Gd, Ho, and Tb. However, it produces the least amount of output potential when paired with GC or Pt. It is consistently better than the other rare earth metals when paired with Ta, Ag, or Ni electrodes. Dy, Er, Gd, Ho, and Tb have similar atomic structures, empirically measured atomic radii ranging from 175 to 180 picometers, densities in the approximate range of 8 to 9 g/cm\({}^{3}\), oxidation states of +1, +2, and +3, low electrical resistance values ranging roughly from 0.8 to 1.3 uH/m, and hexagonal close-packed crystal structures. They do have differences in electron configurations and atoms per electron shell, but no reasonable difference for Dy to behave catalytically differently from the other rare earth metals. Further studies are needed to determine the reasons for catalytic behavior. Sb and Ta were the only electrodes tested that were resistant to corrosion in the neutral and acidic hydrogen peroxide electrolytes. Both generated sizable cell output potentials when paired with the Pt electrode. Comparing the various pH peroxide electrolytes, acidic peroxide electrolytes produced a higher output potential. Hydrogen peroxide is also known to have better stability in acidic pH ranges. This leads to the conclusion that an acidic pH is more preferred for the fuel cell model. Sb performs better than Ta when paired with Pt in a neutral electrode. The performance difference decreases as the pH decreases. Also, as the pH decreases to 2, the differences in the output potential between Sb and Ta also decrease. As it decreases further to 1.08, Ta begins to outperform Sb, generating a higher output potential (when paired with Pt). The opposite trend is observed with the open circuit potentials. Sb has a higher OCP in acidic pH solutions and Ta has a higher OCP than Sb in a neutral pH. When paired with the Pt electrode, the Ta and Sb act as anodic electrocatalysts in the neutral and acidic peroxide electrolytes. Dy, Er, and Gd produce typical catalytic cyclic voltammograms whether or not they are in peroxide or peroxide-free Alkaline Electrolytes. In the cyclic voltammograms, they have an anodic voltage sweep, indicating oxidative catalysts. Gd and Er voltammagrams have similar potentials around 0.1 V, whereas Dy has a higher potential of 0.2 V. The voltammograms of GC have similar shapes in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and without it.