Volume 140, 2009

Steady state oxygenreduction and cyclic voltammetry

Abstract

The catalytic activity of Pt and Pt3Ni for the oxygen reduction reaction is investigated by applying a Sabatier model based on density functional calculations. We investigate the role of adsorbed OH on the activity, by comparing cyclic voltammetry obtained from theory with previously published experimental results with and without molecular oxygen present. We find that the simple Sabatier model predicts both the potential dependence of the OH coverage and the measured current densities seen in experiments, and that it offers an understanding of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the atomic level. To investigate kinetic effects we develop a simple kinetic model for ORR. Whereas kinetic corrections only matter close to the volcano top, an interesting outcome of the kinetic model is a first order dependence on the oxygen pressure. Importantly, the conclusion obtained from the simple Sabatier model still persists: an intermediate binding of OH corresponds to the highest catalytic activity, i.e. Pt is limited by a too strong OH binding and Pt3Ni is limited by a too weak OH binding.

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Feb 2008
Accepted
28 Mar 2008
First published
20 Aug 2008

Faraday Discuss., 2009,140, 337-346

Steady state oxygen reduction and cyclic voltammetry

J. Rossmeisl, G. S. Karlberg, T. Jaramillo and J. K. Nørskov, Faraday Discuss., 2009, 140, 337 DOI: 10.1039/B802129E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements