The effect of Pt surface orientation on the oscillatory electro-oxidation of glycerol

Abstract

In the present paper, we have studied the influence of (bi)sulfate anion (0.1 and 0.5 M) on the electro-oxidation of glycerol on basal Pt(hkl) and stepped surfaces belonging to the series of Pt(S)[n(1 1 1) × (1 1 1)]. Cyclic voltammograms and derivative voltammetry pointed out that the catalytic activity decreases for Pt(1 1 1) and Pt(1 1 0) and, to a minor extent, for stepped surfaces in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4. Chronoamperometric curves demonstrated that above 0.60 V (vs RHE), for both concentrations (0.1 and 0.5 mol/L H2SO4), stepped surfaces and Pt(1 1 0) showed greater ability to catalyze the glycerol electro-oxidation in comparison with Pt(1 1 1). Potential oscillations were mapped along with slow galvanodynamic sweeps and studied at constant current. For Pt(1 1 1), no oscillations were found in the galvanodynamic regime, however, under the galvanostatic regime, period 1 oscillations were observed after a long induction period. The oscillations showed a very similar profile for stepped surfaces, even for the Pt(3 3 2) surface, which has a high density of (1 1 0) steps. Pattern changes were observed only for Pt(1 1 0) compared to other surfaces. Therefore, we conclude that (1 1 0) step sites influence the oscillatory behavior, thus the insertion of the steps favors the path of formation of inactive species, which compete for the same catalytic sites in a given potential region. The extinction of the mechanism oscillatory occurs differently due to the intrinsic characteristics of each surface electrode for the formation of (hydro)oxides.