Comparison of CO on carbon-supported Pt catalysts prepared by CO gas bubbling and methanol dehydrogenation

Abstract

CO adsorbates on the surface of Pt supported on carbon catalysts (Pt/C) were investigated by CO stripping voltammetry. Three types of CO adsorbed samples were prepared: by methanol dehydrogenation only (COm), by CO gas bubbling only (COg), and by methanol dehydrogenation followed by CO gas bubbling (COm+g). Our coverage data show that CO gas can be adsorbed on Pt/C catalyst already saturated with CO adsorbates by methanol dehydrogenation. The COm+g sample showed the properties of both COm as well as COg samples in terms of the potential although the CO adsorbed by dehydrogenation was completely exchanged with CO in the electrolyte solution. Therefore, the oxidation pathways of CO on Pt/C were observed to depend on the initial adsorption conditions of CO more strongly than on the CO coverage. Our results imply that an initial CO poisoning condition in fuel cell operation is an important factor to determine the difficulty in removing the adsorbed CO and confirm that the properties of the adsorbed CO do not change even with chemical replacement with CO in different conditions. In addition, our results indicate a low CO surface mobility on the Pt in an electrolyte solution.