WIAS Preprint No. 1522, (2010)

The role of reactive reaction intermediates in two-step heterogeneous electro-catalytic reactions: A model study



Authors

  • Fuhrmann, Jürgen
    ORCID: 0000-0003-4432-2434
  • Zhao, Hong
  • Langmach, Hartmut
  • Seidel, Yvonne E.
  • Jusys, Zenonas
  • Behm, Rolf J.

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

  • 35K20 65N99

Keywords

  • Finite Volume Method, Electrocatalysis

DOI

10.20347/WIAS.PREPRINT.1522

Abstract

Experimental investigations of heterogeneous electrocatalytic reactions have been performed in flow cells which provide an environment with controlled parameters. Measurements of the oxygen reduction reaction in a flow cell with an electrode consisting of an array of Pt nanodisks on a glassy carbon substrate exhibited a decreasing fraction of the intermediate $H_2O_2$ in the overall reaction products with increasing density of the nanodiscs. A similar result is true for the dependence on the catalyst loading in the case of a supported Pt/C catalyst thin-film electrode, where the fraction of the intermediate decreases with increasing catalyst loading. Similar effects have been detected for the methanol oxidation. We present a model of multistep heterogeneous electrocatalytic oxidation and reduction reactions based on an adsorption-reaction-desorption scheme using the Langmuir assumption and macroscopic transport equations. A continuum based model problem in a vertical cross section of a rectangular flow cell is proposed in order to explain basic principles of the experimental situation. It includes three model species A, B, C, which undergo adsorption and desorption at a catalyst surface, as well as adsorbate reactions from A to B to C. These surface reactions are coupled with diffusion and advection in the Hagen Poiseuille flow in the flow chamber of the cell. Both high velocity asymptotic theory and a finite volume numerical are used to obtain approximate solutions to the model. Both approaches show a behaviour similar to the experimentally observed. Working in more general situations, the finite volume scheme was applied to a catalyst layer consisting of a number of small catalytically active areas corresponding to nanodisks. Good qualitative agreement with the experimental findings was established for this case as well.

Appeared in

  • Fuel Cells, 11 (2011) pp. 501--510.

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