Surface Crystallographic Dependence of Voltammetric Oxidation of Polyhydric Alcohols and Related Systems at Monocrystalline Gold-Acidic Aqueous Interfaces
Abstract
The voltammetric oxidation in aqueous 0.1 M HC10, perchloric acid of four polyhydric alcohols, ethylene glycol, glycerol, meso-erythritol, and d-mannitol, on seven oriented gold surfaces is reported with the objective of assessing the role of surface crystallographic orientation on the catalytic electrooxidation of such poly-functional reactants. The automatically well-ordered nature of these gold surfaces has been scrutinized by in-situ scanning tunneling microscopy. In particular, the Au(221) and (533) faces were selected since they provide stepped surfaces, 4(111)-(111) and 4(111)-(100), respectively. The results are compared with corresponding data for simple unifunctional reactants, specifically for formic acid oxidation and with results reported previously for carbon monoxide oxidation. In contrast to the last reaction, the electrooxidation rates for both the polyhydric alcoholic and formic acid are greatest on Au(111), with Au(110) displaying unusually low activity. While formic acid electrooxidation is insensitive to the presence of monoatomic surface steps, the polyhydric alcohols (especially mannitol) are substantially less reactive on AU(221) and (533) relative to Au(111).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA246763
Entities
People
- Antoinette Hamelin
- Michael J. Weaver
- Si-chung Chang
- Xiaoping Gao
- Yeunghaw Ho
Organizations
- Purdue University