The temperature dependence of hydrogen evolution reaction （HER） at a quasi-single crystalline gold electrode in both 0.1 mol/L HCl04 and 0.1 mol/L KOH solutions was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. HER current displays a clear increase with reaction overpotential （η） and temperature from 278-333 K. In 0.1 mol/L HClO4 the Tafel slopes are found to increases slightly with temperature from 118 mV/dec to 146 mV/dec, while in 0.1 mol/L KOH it is ca. 153±15 mV/dec without clear temperature-dependent trend. The apparent activation energy （Ea） for HER at equilibrium potential is ca. 48 and 34 kJ/mol in 0.1 mol/L HC104 and 0.1 mol/L KOH, respectively. In acid solution, Ea decreases with increase in η, from Ea-37 kJ/mol （η=0.2 V） to 30 kJ/mol （η=0.35 V）. In contrast, in 0.1 mol/L KOH, Ea does not show obvious change with U. The pre-exponential factor （A） in 0.1 mol/L HC104 is ca. 1 order higher than that in 0.1 mol/L KOH. Toward more negative potential, in 0.1 mol/L HC104 A changes little with potential, while in 0.1 mol/L KOH it displays a monotonic increase with U. The change trends of the potential-dependent kinetic parameters for HER at Au electrode in 0.1 mol/L HClO4 and that in 0.1 mol/L KOH are discussed.
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.
