Monte Carlo simulations of a simple model for the electrocatalytic CO oxidation on platinum

Abstract

A simple lattice-gas model for the electrocatalytic carbon monoxide oxidation on a platinum electrode is studied by dynamic Monte Carlo simulations. The CO oxidation takes place through a Langmuir–Hinshelwood reaction between adsorbed CO and an adsorbed OH radical resulting from the dissociative adsorption of water. The model enables the investigation of the role of CO surface mobility on the macroscopic electrochemical response such as linear sweep voltammetry and potential step chronoamperometry. Our results show that the mean-field approximation, the traditional but often tacitly made assumption in electrochemistry, breaks down severely in the limit of vanishing CO surface mobility. Comparison of the simulated and experimental voltammetry suggests that on platinum CO oxidation is the intrinsically fastest reaction on the surface and that CO has a high surface mobility. However, under the same conditions, the model predicts some interesting deviations from the potential step current transients derived from the classical nucleation and growth theories. Such deviations have not been reported experimentally. Furthermore, it is shown that our simple model predicts different Tafel slopes at low and high potential, the qualitative features of which are not strongly influenced by the CO mobility. The comparison of our simulation results to the experimental literature is discussed in some detail.