Electroactivity of nanoporous platinum depending on the porosity and potential for various electrode reactions

Abstract

Electroactivity of nanoporous Pt (npPt) depending on the pore characteristics was studied for various electrode reactions having a range of electrode reaction kinetics: ferrocene oxidation, l-ascorbic acid (AA) oxidation, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), H2O2 reduction, and glucose oxidation. npPts with two different degrees of the porosities (npPt-1 and npPt-2) were electrodeposited on recessed Pt microdisk electrodes (100-μm diameter), employing deposition solutions in which the composition ratios of Pt precursor, Triton X-100, and lead acetate were varied. npPt-1 has smaller microscale pores than npPt-2. The electroactivities of npPts were analyzed using amperometric sensitivities at mass-transfer-controlled and kinetic-controlled potential regions. Both npPt-1 and npPt-2 increased the sensitivities for all the reactions but reversible ferrocene oxidation remarkably compared to bare Pt. In the kinetic-controlled region, npPt-1 showed more greatly enhanced sensitivity compared to npPt-2 due to the smaller pores exerting more efficient confinement of a reactant near the Pt surface. In mass-transfer controlled region, npPt-2 was beneficial for relatively fast reactions (AA oxidation, ORR); while npPt-1 was advantageous for slower reactions (H2O2 reduction, glucose oxidation). This suggests that the particle-to-particle distance of the npPt affects the electroactivity and an optimum degree of the porosity is different depending on the reaction kinetics.