Abstract
The chemicurrent is a flux of energetic charge carriers, which may be observed experimentally within thin metal films in response to an exothermic surface catalytic chemical reaction. This article suggests a picture behind the chemicurrent in hydrogen oxidation in a high temperature regime over a platinum surface. The picture is intrinsic to the reaction mechanism. Surface reaction intermediates, “O–”, “H–”, “OH–”, are negatively charged while the product, H2O, and reactants, H2 and O2, are neutral. Hence, charge transfers between the metal and reacting species are inevitable. After electrons are transferred from the metal to the interface in dissociative oxygen and hydrogen adsorption, translationally excited electrons in the metal arise in part as a result of decay of negatively charged transition states in reaction steps connecting surface species of different charges, “O– + H–” ⇄ “e + OH–” and “OH– + H–” ⇄ “2e + H2O”. These transition states are the lowest energy configurations possible for changing t...
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