Accessing the Inaccessible: Analyzing the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in the Diffusion Limit

Alessandro Zana; Gustav K H Wiberg; Yu-Jia Deng; Thomas Østergaard; Jan Rossmeisl; Matthias Arenz

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b13902

Accessing the Inaccessible: Analyzing the Oxygen Reduction Reaction in the Diffusion Limit

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Nov 8;9(44):38176-38180. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b13902. Epub 2017 Oct 25.

Authors

Alessandro Zana^{1

2}, Gustav K H Wiberg^{1

2}, Yu-Jia Deng^{1

3}, Thomas Østergaard¹, Jan Rossmeisl¹, Matthias Arenz^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Nano-Science Center, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen 1165, Denmark.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern , Bern 3012, Switzerland.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University , Qingdao 266000, China.

PMID: 29063766
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13902

Abstract

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the key processes in electrocatalysis. In this communication, the ORR is studied using a rotating disk electrode (RDE). In conventional work, this method limits the potential region where kinetic (mass transport free) reaction rates can be determined to a narrow range. Here, we applied a new approach, which allows us to analyze the ORR rates in the diffusion-limited potential region of high mass transport. Thus, for the first time, the effect of anion adsorption on the ORR can be studied at such potentials.

Keywords: adsorption isotherm; anion adsorption; computational modeling; diffusion limited current; fuel cells; oxygen reduction reaction; rotating disk electrode.