Driving Force of the Initial Step in Electrochemical Pt(111) Oxidation
Timo Fuchs, Valentín Briega‐Martos, Jan Ole Fehrs, Canrong Qiu, Marta Mirolo, Chentian Yuan, Serhiy Cherevko, Jakub Drnec, Olaf M. Magnussen, David A. Harrington
Abstract
The first step of electrochemical surface oxidation is extraction of a metal atom from its lattice site to a location in a growing oxide. Here we show by fast simultaneous electrochemical and in situ high-energy surface X-ray diffraction measurements that the initial extraction of Pt atoms from Pt(111) is a fast, potential-driven process, whereas charge transfer for the related formation of adsorbed oxygen-containing species occurs on a much slower time scale and is evidently uncoupled from the extraction process. It is concluded that potential plays a key independent role in electrochemical surface oxidation.