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Title: Mechanism of oxygen reduction reaction on Pt(111) in alkaline solution: Importance of chemisorbed water on surface

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. State Univ. of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY (United States)
  2. State Univ. of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Here, we report a detailed mechanistic study of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on Pt(111) in alkaline solution, combining density functional theory and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. A complex reaction network including four possible pathways via either 2e or 4e transfer is established and is able to reproduce the experimental measured polarization curve at both low- and high-potential regions. Our results show that it is essential to account for solvation by water and the dynamic coverage of *OH to describe the reaction kinetics well. In addition, a chemisorbed water (*H2O)-mediated mechanism including 4e transfers is identified, where the reduction steps via *H2O on the surface are potential-independent and only the final removal of *OH from the surface in the form of OH(aq) contributes to the current. For the ORR in alkaline solutions, such a mechanism is more competitive than the associative and dissociative mechanisms typically used to describe the ORR in acid solution. Finally, *OH and **O2 intermediates are found to be critically important for tuning the ORR activity of Pt in alkaline solution. To enhance the activity, the binding of Pt should be tuned in such a way that *OH binding is weak enough to release more surface sites under working conditions, while **O2 binding is strong enough to enable the ORR via the 4e transfer mechanism.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC00112704
OSTI ID:
1328388
Report Number(s):
BNL-112715-2016-JA; R&D Project: CO009; KC0301020
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Vol. 120, Issue 28; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 87 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Non-Monotonic Trends of Hydrogen Adsorption on Single Atom Doped g-C3N4 journal January 2019
Electrochemical Adsorption on Pt Nanoparticles in Alkaline Solution Observed Using In Situ High Energy Resolution X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy journal April 2019
Medium Modulated Oxygen Reduction Activity of Fe/Co Active Centre‐engrafted Electrocatalysts journal May 2019
Superoxide Decay Pathways in Oxygen Reduction Reaction on Carbon‐Based Catalysts Evidenced by Theoretical Calculations journal February 2019
Theory-guided materials design: two-dimensional MXenes in electro- and photocatalysis journal January 2019
Recent Studies on Bifunctional Perovskite Electrocatalysts in Oxygen Evolution, Oxygen Reduction, and Hydrogen Evolution Reactions under Alkaline Electrolyte journal May 2019
Surface configuration and wettability of nickel(oxy)hydroxides: a first-principles investigation journal January 2017
A review of transition metal‐based bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts journal April 2019
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Intermetallic Pd 3 Pb nanocubes with high selectivity for the 4-electron oxygen reduction reaction pathway journal January 2020