Energetics of methanol and formic acid oxidation on Pt(111): Mechanistic insights from adsorption calorimetry

Abstract

The catalytic and electrocatalytic oxidation and reforming of methanol and formic acid have received intense interest due to potential use in direct fuel cells and as prototype models for understanding electrocatalysis. Consequently, the reaction energy diagram (energies of all the adsorbed intermediates and activation energies of all the elementary steps) have been estimated for these reactions on Pt(111) by density functional theory (DFT) in several studies. However, no experimental measurement of these energy diagrams have been reported, nor is there a consensus on the mechanisms. Here, we use energies of key intermediates on Pt(111) from single crystal adsorption calorimetry (SCAC) and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) to build a combined energy diagram for these reactions. It suggests a new pathway involving monodentate formate as a key intermediate, with bidentate formate only being a spectator species that slows the rate. This helps reconcile conflicting proposed mechanisms.