Issue 44, 2009

Ethanol electro-oxidation on platinum in alkaline media

Abstract

The electrochemical oxidation of ethanol as well as its irreversible adsorption on platinum single crystal electrodes has been studied in an alkaline solution. In addition, the adsorbed species in the ethanol oxidation reaction were also studied by means of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) on a platinum film electrode. It was found that the oxidation of ethanol is very sensitive to the electrode surface structure: a higher concentration of low-coordination sites increases the current, lowers the overpotential required and lowers the deactivation rate. Furthermore, the terrace length also affects the amounts and the nature of the adsorbed species: on Pt (110), only COad was observed, whereas adsorbed CHx could only be found on electrode surfaces with (111) terrace sites. Based on the results here, a model for the ethanol electro-oxidation reaction in alkaline media is presented, and the differences with the same reaction in acidic media are pointed out.

Graphical abstract: Ethanol electro-oxidation on platinum in alkaline media

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 Jul 2009
Accepted
18 Aug 2009
First published
24 Sep 2009

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2009,11, 10446-10456

Ethanol electro-oxidation on platinum in alkaline media

S. C. S. Lai and M. T. M. Koper, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2009, 11, 10446 DOI: 10.1039/B913170A

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