Adsorption of Formate and Its Role as Intermediate in Formic Acid Oxidation on Platinum Electrodes

Formate adsorption: Fast electrochemical techniques allow the detection of formate as the adsorbed species from formic acid on platinum single-crystal electrodes (see picture). Additionally, the oxidation current for formic acid oxidation is directly proportional to the formate coverage, which indicates that adsorbed formate is the active intermediate.