Mechanism of Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitric Oxide on Pt(100)

Abstract

The mechanism of electrocatalytic reduction of nitric oxide on Pt(100)-(1 × 1) in acidic media has been studied using voltammetry, in-situ infrared spectroscopy, and on-line mass spectroscopy, considering the effect of surface defects, NO coverage, and the nature of the supporting electrolyte (sulfate vs perchlorate). Related mechanistic aspects of hydroxylamine (HAM) transformations on the same surface have been also examined. The adsorption of nitric oxide on Pt(100) results in the formation of an adlayer with a structure similar to that formed under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. Ammonia was shown to be the main product of NO_ads reduction on Pt(100). The saturation coverage of NO adsorbate on Pt(100) was found to be around 0.5 ML, in agreement with previous UHV and electrochemical studies. Two features observed in the voltammetric profile for the electrocatalytic reduction of saturated and subsaturated NO adlayers were tentatively ascribed to reactions of NO species having different reactivity. The Tafel slope analysis of these voltammetric features gives values of ca. 60 mV decade^-1. This value was interpreted in terms of an EC mechanism, in which the first electron/proton transfer is at equilibrium, resulted in formation of HNO_ads intermediate, while the second reaction step is a chemical rate-determining step. This chemical step is assumed to involve the N−O bond breaking in HNO_ads intermediate, which most probably requires a free neighboring site. From a comparison with NO_ads reduction on Pt(111) and Pt(110), it follows that (i) the reaction mechanism is structure sensitive and (ii) Pt(100) is the most active surface for breaking the N−O bond, which is in agreement with the trend observed under UHV conditions. As suggested in our previous studies, the electrocatalytic reduction of HAM is likely to proceed through its partial dehydrogenation. In this study, we further develop this idea, and, based on the mechanism for NO_ads reduction proposed here, we suggest HNO_ads to be the intermediate appearing both in HAM reduction/oxidation and in NO_ads reduction.