Reaction of Br2 with Adsorbed CO on Pt, Studied by the Surface Interrogation Mode of Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

Abstract

Scanning electrochemical microscopy surface interrogation (SI-SECM) in the cyclic voltammetry mode was successfully used to detect and quantify adsorbed CO on a Pt electrode by reaction with electrogenerated Br(2). The two-electrode setup used in this new technique allowed the production of Br(2) on an interrogator tip, which reported a transient positive feedback above a Pt substrate at open circuit as an indication of the reactivity of this halogen with CO((ads)). Br(-) and CO(2) are shown to be the main products of the reaction (in the absence of O(2)), which may involve the formation of bromophosgene as a hydrolyzable intermediate. Under saturation conditions, CO((ads)) was reproducibly quantified at the polycrystalline Pt surface with theta(CO) approximately = 0.5. The reaction is shown to be blocked by the action of pre-adsorbed cyanide, which demonstrates the surface character of the process. The formation of CO(2) as an end product was further tested in a bulk experiment: addition of Pt black to a mixture of Br(2) in 0.5 M H(2)SO(4) through which CO was bubbled gave a precipitate of BaCO(3) in a saturated solution of Ba(OH)(2). The use of SI-SECM allowed access to a reaction that would otherwise be difficult to prove through conventional electrochemistry on a single electrode.