The Role of Water-Surface Interactions of Platinum Based Catalysts in Electrochemical Methanol Oxidation

Study focuses on the impact of potential of zero total charge (PZTC) determined with N2O reduction on different Pt-based catalysts in three important proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) reactions, namely oxygen reduction (ORR), CO oxidation and methanol oxidation (MOR). The catalysts activities are correlated with a change in PZTC, hence with a change of structure and surface coverage of adsorbed water (and other adsorbed species). These correlations indicate that adsorbed water and its dissociation products (OHad) together with other adsorbed species govern the trend in the rates of the above reactions.