Four methods, including voltammetric measurement of double layer capacitance, surface oxides reduction, under potential deposition of Cu and carbon monoxide （CO） stripping have been applied to evaluate the real surface area of a polycrystalline Pd （pc-Pd） electrode. The results reveal that the second and third methods lead to consistent results with deviations below 5%. And from the determined double layer capacitance and CO stripping charge, it is deduced that the double layer capacity unit area is 23.1±0.4μF/cm2 and the saturated CO adlayer should be ca. 0.66 ML in order to ensure that the real surface area as determined is consistent with the other two techniques. The applicability as well as the attentions when applying these techniques for the determination of the real surface area of pc-Pd electrodes have been discussed.
The effects of O2 and the supported Pt nano-particles on the mechanisms and kinetics of the carbon support corrosion are investigated by monitoring the CO2 production using differential electrochemical mass spectrometry in a dual-thin layer flow cell. Carbon can be oxidized in different distinct potential regimes; O2 accelerates carbon oxidation, the rates of CO2 production from carbon oxidation in O2 saturated solution are two times of that in N2 saturated solution at the same potential; Pt can catalyze the carbon oxidation, with supported Pt nanoparticles, the overpotential for carbon oxidation is much smaller than that without loading in the carbon electrode. The mechanism for the enhanced carbon oxidation by Pt and O2 are discussed.
Kinetics of dissociative O2 adsorption, OHad desorption, and oxygen reduction reaction （ORR） at Pt（111） electrode in 0.1 mol/L HClO4 has been investigated. Reversible OHad adsorption/desorption occurs at potentials from 0.6 V to 1.0 V （vs. RHE） with the exchange current density of ca. 50 mA/cm^2 at 0.8 V, the fast kinetics of OHad desorption indicates that it should not be the rate determining step for ORR. In the kineticor kinetic-mass transport mix controlled potential region, ORR current at constant potential displays slight decrease with reaction time. ORR current in the positive-going potential scan is slightly larger than that in the subsequent negative-going scan with electrode rotation speed （〉800 r/min） and slow potential scan rate （〈100 mV/s）. The open circuit potential of Pt/0.1 mol/L HClO4 interface increases promptly from 0.9 V to 1.0 V after switch from O2 free- to O2-saturated solution. The increase of open circuit potential as well as ORR current decays under potential control due to the accumulation of OHad from dissociative adsorption of O2. It indicates that at Pt（111） the net rate for O2 decomposition to OHad is slightly faster than that for OHad removal, one cannot simply use the assumption of rate determining step to discuss ORR kinetics. Instead, the ORR kinetics is determined by both the kinetics for O2 decomposition to OHad as well as the thermo-equilibrium of OHad＋H^＋＋e→←H2O.
