Kinetic study of the hydrogen oxidation reaction on sub-stoichiometric titanium oxide-supported platinum electrocatalyst in acid solution

Abstract

Abstract The kinetics and mechanism of the hydrogen oxidation reaction were studied in 0.5 mol dm −3 HClO 4 solution on an electrode based on titanium oxide with Magneli phase structure-supported platinum electrocatalyst applied on rotation Au disk electrode. Pt catalyst was prepared by impregnation method from 2-propanol solution of Pt(NH 3 ) 2 (NO 2 ) 2 and sub-stoichiometric titanium oxide powder. Sub-stiochiometric titanium oxide support was characterized by X-ray diffraction and BET techniques. The synthesized catalyst was analyzed by TEM technique. Based on Tafel–Heyrovsky–Volmer mechanism the corresponding kinetic equations were derived to describe the hydrogen oxidation current–potential behavior on RDE over the entire potential region. The polarization RDE curves were fitted with derived polarization equations according to proposed model. The fitting shows that the HOR on Pt proceeds most likely via the Tafel–Volmer (TV) pathway in the lower potential region, while the Heyrovsky–Volmer (HV) pathway is operative in the higher potential region. It is pointed out that Tafel equation that has been frequently used for the kinetics analysis in the HOR, can not reproduce the polarization curves measured with high mass-transport rates. Polarization measurements on RDE revealed that the Pt catalyst deposited on titanium suboxide support showed equal specific activity for the HOR compared to conventional carbon-supported Pt fuel cell catalyst.