RESUMEN
Carbon coating layers have been found to improve the catalytic performance of transition metals, which is usually explained as an outcome of electronic synergistic effect. Herein we reveal that the defective graphitic carbon, with a unique interlayer gap of 0.342â nm, can be a highly selective natural molecular sieve. It allows efficient diffusion of hydrogen molecules or radicals both along the in-plane and out-of-plane direction, but sterically hinders the diffusion of molecules with larger kinetic diameter (e.g., CO and O2) along the in-plane direction. As a result, poisonous species lager than 0.342â nm are sieved out, even when their adsorption on the metal is thermodynamically strong; at the same time, the interaction between H2 and the metal is not affected. This natural molecular sieve provides a very chance for constructing robust metal catalysts for hydrogen-relevant processes, which are more tolerant to chemical or electrochemical oxidation or CO-relevant poisoning.
RESUMEN
Electrocatalytic properties of three electrodes for formic acid oxidation were studied by using electrochemical in situ FTIR spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry in this paper. It is demonstrated that the electrocatalytical mechanism of formic acid oxidation on platinum-dispersed carbon(Pt/GC) is similar to that on massive platinum, which involves two paths, i.e. one way through active intermediate and the other through poison intermediate to CO2. The Pt/GC exhibits higher catalytivity than pure platinum. The electrode of Pt/GC modified by Sb (Sb-Pt/GC) was also prepared in the work. It was observed that the onset potential (Ei) for formic acid oxidation on Sb-Pt/GC was shift negatively for 0.20 V. The peak potential (Ep) was observed to shifted negatively to 0.34 V and the value of oxidation current (jp) was enhanced nearly 7.28 times. Similar results were also observed on surface alloy/GC prepared. In this case, Ei and Ep were -0.12 and 0.32 V, respectively, jp was enhanced about 8.15 times, and FWHM (full width at half maximum) was 0.50 V. It is indicated that Sb-Pt/GC and surface alloy/GC can not only effectively restrain the formation of poison intermediate CO, but also significantly increase the electrocatalytic activities for oxidation of active intermediates.
