Unifying the ORR and OER with surface oxygen and extracting their intrinsic activities on platinum

Common half-cell measurements deliver oxygen reduction activities linked to the chosen scan rate, limiting their value for fundamental and comparative studies on platinum. Here we show a deconvolution of the intrinsic kinetics from the effect of surface oxygen on platinum. We find an electronic effect of the surface oxygen, substantiate a Tafel slope of ~120 mV/decade, obtain an exchange current density of 13 ± 4 µA/cm2, and an activity of 7 mA/cm2 at 900 mV. Eventually, we broaden the scope of this analysis to the effects of surface rearrangement, alloying, and supported Pt nanoparticles, the latter providing insight into discrepancies between half-cell and fuel cell measurements. We find through computational methods that binding energies of intermediates would be weakened by the presence of highly coordinated oxygen atoms. Finally, we obtain a phenomenological rate equation for the oxygen reduction and evolution reaction, suggesting that both reactions follow a shared mechanism. Catalyzing the splitting and formation of oxygen on noble metal surfaces are key reactions developing materials for electrolysis. Here, authors show on platinum that the state of a surface oxidation process is a key descriptor for the kinetics.