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Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance study on Au-supported Pt adlayers for electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol in alkaline solution

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Abstract

Underpotential deposition (UPD) of Cu on an Au electrode followed by redox replacement reaction (RRR) of CuUPD with a Pt source (H2PtCl6 or K2PtCl4) yielded Au-supported Pt adlayers (for short, Pt(CuUPD-Pt4+)n/Au for H2PtCl6, or Pt(CuUPD-Pt2+)n/Au for K2PtCl4, where n denotes the number of UPD-redox replacement cycles). The electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) technique was used for the first time to quantitatively study the fabricated electrodes and estimate their mass-normalized specific electrocatalytic activity (SECA) for methanol oxidation in alkaline solution. In comparison with Pt(CuUPD-Pt2+)n/Au, Pt(CuUPD-Pt4+)n/Au exhibited a higher electrocatalytic activity, and the maximum SECA was obtained to be as high as 35.7 mA μg−1 at Pt(CuUPD-Pt4+)3/Au. The layer-by-layer architecture of Pt atoms on Au is briefly discussed based on the EQCM-revealed redox replacement efficiency, and the calculated distribution percentages of bare Au sites agree with the experimental results deduced from the charge under the AuO x -reduction peaks. The EQCM is highly recommended as an efficient technique to quantitatively examine various electrode-supported catalyst adlayers, and the highly efficient catalyst adlayers of noble metals are promising in electrocatalysis relevant to biological, energy and environmental sciences and technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research, Ministry of Education; College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, China

    Zhao Huang, Xue’En Jia, QingJi Xie, YueMing Tan, SuQing Huang, JinHua Huang, Yue Meng & ShouZhuo Yao

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  1. Zhao Huang
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  2. Xue’En Jia
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  3. QingJi Xie
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  4. YueMing Tan
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  5. SuQing Huang
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  6. JinHua Huang
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  7. Yue Meng
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  8. ShouZhuo Yao
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Correspondence to QingJi Xie or ShouZhuo Yao.

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Huang, Z., Jia, X., Xie, Q. et al. Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance study on Au-supported Pt adlayers for electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol in alkaline solution. Sci. China Chem. 53, 2349–2356 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-010-4078-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-010-4078-9

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