Electrocatalysis Polanyi

The theory of electrocatalysis is still in its infancy. It was developed first for the hydrogen evolution reaction in the second half of the 1900s. The grounds can be traced back in a seminal paper by Floriuti and Polanyi [25]. Accordingly, for a simple one-electron electrode reaction ... 

J. Horiuti and M. Polanyi, Acta Physicochem. URSS 2 505 (1935). Fust theory of electrocatalysis. 

J. Horiuti and J. C. Polanyi, Acta Physicochim. URSS 2 505 (1935). Potential energy curves given for the discharge of protons onto metals. Effect of change of metal bond shown foundation of electrocatalysis. 

The term electrocatalysis was first introduced by Grubb in 1963 [1] in connection with the anodic and cathodic charge-transfer reactions in fuel cells. However, the first systematic experimental investigations of various electrocatalysts had been carried out in the 1920s by Bowden and Rideal [2] and the concept and first interpretation of electrocatalysis had been introduced in the 1930s by Horiuti and Polanyi [3]. Their theory and its extensions and improvements have been analyzed lucidly by Bockris [4-6]. Recent reviews of progress in electrocatalysis can be found in more general [6-8] or specialized books [9-11]. 

Horiuti and Polanyi [3] were the first to provide an interpretation of electrocatalysis (Fig. 2). The potential energy of a proton moving toward the electrode exhibits a maximum at the intersection of the potential energy curve of the proton in solution and that of a H atom adsorbed on the electrode. A good electrocatalyst is that... 

---