Charge transfer hydrogen evolution reaction

The present Section, which provides an outline of selected relevant topics in electrochemistry, is intended primarily as an introduction to aqueous corrosion for those readers whose basic training has not involved a study of electrochemistry. The scope of electrochemistry is enormous and cannot be treated adequately here, but there are now a number of excellent books on the subject, and it is hoped that this outline will serve to stimulate further study. The topics selected are as follows a) the nature of the electrified interface between the metal and the solution, (b) adsorption, (c) transfer of charge across the interface under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions, d) overpotential and the rate of an electrode reaction and (e) the hydrogen evolution reaction and hydrogen absorption by ferrous alloys. For reasons of space a number of important topics, such as the electrochemistry of electrolyte solutions, have been omitted. 

If these conditions are not satisfied, some process will be involved to prevent accumulation of the intermediates at the interface. Two possibilities are at hand, viz. transport by diffusion into the solution or adsorption at the electrode surface. In the literature, one can find general theories for such mechanisms and theories focussed to a specific electrode reaction, e.g. the hydrogen evolution reaction [125], the reduction of oxygen [126] and the anodic dissolution of metals like iron and nickel [94]. In this work, we will confine ourselves to outline the principles of the subject, treating only the example of two consecutive charge transfer processes O + n e = Z and Z 4- n2e — R. 

Figures 14.6 and 14.7 depict the polarization curves of iron in weak HCI solutions, when the cathodic reaction is the hydrogen evolution reaction and when the cathodic process is the reduction of oxygen, respectively. In the former case, both the anodic and the cathodic processes are charge-transfer controlled, represented by the Tafel equation as ...

Until now, the methodology available to study charge transfer reactions at soft interfaces has been rather mature, and studies in the field have shifted to the study of catalyzed reactions such as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), or even oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Eor this, two classes of catalysts have been used (i) molecular catalysts and (ii) nanoparticle solid catalysts. These two approaches draw their inspiration from classical molecular catalysis and from electrocatalysis, respectively. 

Charge transfer reactions represent an important category of electrochemical behavior. As already pointed out above, an appropriate investigation of kinetic parameters of electrochemical reactions in aqueous electrolytes suffers from the small temperature range experimentally accessible. In the following, some preliminary results using the FREECE technique are presented for the Fe2+/Fe3+ redox reaction and for hydrogen evolution at various metal electrodes. 

Hydrogen evolution, the other reaction studied, is a classical reaction for electrochemical kinetic studies. It was this reaction that led Tafel (24) to formulate his semi-logarithmic relation between potential and current which is named for him and that later resulted in the derivation of the equation that today is called "Butler-Volmer-equation" (25,26). The influence of the electrode potential is considered to modify the activation barrier for the charge transfer step of the reaction at the interface. This results in an exponential dependence of the reaction rate on the electrode potential, the extent of which is given by the transfer coefficient, a. 

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