Electrochemical behaviour of oxygen-containing aliphatic compounds adsorbed on platinum in acid medium: Part II. Primary alcohols

Abstract

The electrochemical behaviour of chemisorbed species of propanol-1 in the absence of bulk reaction is studied. A reaction scheme is proposed for the modification and desorption processes observed in the hydrogen potential region. About 0.5 to 0.75 electrons per site are required for these processes. The oxidation of the unmodified chemisorbed propanol-1 (assumed to have the structure C 2H 4−x/xC−OH) is complete at 1.6 V under potential sweep conditions and requires about 2 e/site. Oxidation of at least, some the modified species begins at more negative potentials and it is assumed that they have the structure of adsorbed methanol. In the presence of propanol-1 in solution in the supporting electrolyte (0.5 M H 2SO 4), the overall reaction rate in the double layer and in the oxygen region is not determined by the oxidation of the chemisorbed species.