Hydrogen evolution on platinum in the presence of lead, cadmium and thallium adatoms

Abstract

Hydrogen evolution on rotating platinum electrode has been measured in the presence of Pb, Tl and Cd adatoms. At low coverages of these adatoms (θM < 0.5) the mechanism of H2 evolution is the same as that for Pt, giving rise to the Tafel slope of 30 mV with recombination of H adatoms as a rate controlling step. However, H2 evolution decreases with θM to the fourth power, due to a simple blocking of Pt surface and a decrease of number of pairs of Pt atoms necessary for a recombination reaction. At higher coverages of foreign metal adatoms (θM ≥ 0.5), when the activation energy for the recombination of H adatoms becomes too high, the ion-plus atom reaction begins to control the rate of reaction. The Tafel slope acquires a value of 120 mV. Now, a decrease of H2 evolution has been found proportional to the coverage of metal adatoms. A quantitative analysis based on above model agrees very well with the experiment. Some information on underpotential deposition of above metal on Pt has also been obtained. © 1979.