Structure and Composition of the Electrode in Relation to its Electroactivity

Since oxidation of methanol is an electrocatalytic reaction with different adsorption steps, interactions of the adsorbed species with the metallic surface are important. Using platinum single-crystal electrodes, it has been proven that the electrooxidation of methanol is a surface-sensitive reaction. The initial activity of the Pt(llO) plane is much higher than that of the other low-index planes, but the poisoning phenomenon is so rapid that it causes a fast decrease in the current densities. The 

Structural effect was confirmed by in situ infrared spectroscopy which showed a high coverage of adsorbed CO on a R( 110) plane conversely, on the other single-crystal planes, a distribution of different species is clearly visible. Further, strong lateral interactions between the different adsorbed species on Pt(lOO) lead to very low activity of this electrode at low potentials.  

The effects of dispersion of the electrocatalyst and of particle size on the kinetics of electrooxidation of methanol have been the subject of numerous studies because of the utilization of carbon support in DMFC anodes. The main objective is to determine the optimum size of the platinum anode particles in order to increase the effectiveness factor of platinum. Such a size effect, which is widely recognized in the case of the reduction of oxygen, is still a subject of discussion for the oxidation of methanol. According to some investigators, an optimum of 2 nm for the platinum particle size exists, but studying particle sizes up to 1.4 nm, other authors observed no size effect. According to a recent study, the rate of oxidation of methanol remains constant for particles greater than 4.5 nm, but decreases with size for smaller particles (up to 2.2 nm). 

Such information can be obtained from cyclic voltammetric measme-ments. It is possible to determine the quantity of electricity involved in the adsorption of hydrogen, or for the electrooxidation of previously adsorbed CO, and then to estimate the real surface area and the roughness factor (y) of a R-C electrode. From the real surface area and the R loading, it is possible to estimate the specific surface area, S (in m g ), as follows  

It is also convenient to compare the behavior of different dispersed catalysts with the help of the two following quantities the mass activity, MA, in Ag , and the specific activity, SA, in pA The values ofMA 

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