Interfacial water reorganization as a pH-dependent descriptor of the hydrogen evolution rate on platinum electrodes

Isis Ledezma-Yanez, W. David Z. Wallace, Paula Sebastián-Pascual, Victor Climent, Juan M. Feliu and Marc T. M. Koper ()
Additional contact information
Isis Ledezma-Yanez: Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University
W. David Z. Wallace: Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University
Paula Sebastián-Pascual: Instituto de Electroquímica, Universidad de Alicante
Victor Climent: Instituto de Electroquímica, Universidad de Alicante
Juan M. Feliu: Instituto de Electroquímica, Universidad de Alicante
Marc T. M. Koper: Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University

Nature Energy, 2017, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Hydrogen evolution on platinum is a key reaction for electrocatalysis and sustainable energy storage, yet its pH-dependent kinetics are not fully understood. Here we present a detailed kinetic study of hydrogen adsorption and evolution on Pt(111) in a wide pH range. Electrochemical measurements show that hydrogen adsorption and hydrogen evolution are both slow in alkaline media, consistent with the observation of a shift in the rate-determining step for hydrogen evolution. Adding nickel to the Pt(111) surface lowers the barrier for hydrogen adsorption in alkaline solutions and thereby enhances the hydrogen evolution rate. We explain these observations with a model that highlights the role of the reorganization of interfacial water to accommodate charge transfer through the electric double layer, the energetics of which are controlled by how strongly water interacts with the interfacial field. The model is supported by laser-induced temperature-jump measurements. Our model sheds light on the origin of the slow kinetics for the hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nenergy201731 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natene:v:2:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1038_nenergy.2017.31

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nenergy/

DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.31

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Energy is currently edited by Fouad Khan

More articles in Nature Energy from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().