Electrochemical Hydrogen Oxidation on Pt(100): a Combined Direct Molecular Dynamics/Density Functional Theory Study

We have studied the hydrogen oxidation reaction on various catalytic sites at the water/Pt(100) interface with first-principles direct molecular dynamics and minimum energy pathway calculations. The calculations indicate that the mechanism for electro-oxidation of H2 on terrace sites of the Pt(100) surface depends on the concentration of inactive adsorbed hydrogen on the electrode surface. Near the reversible potential, the electro-oxidation follows the Tafel-Volmer homolytic cleavage of H2 at low coverage of adsorbed hydrogen. If the surface is covered with ca. 1 monolayer of hydrogen, however, the oxidation proceeds by the Heyrovsky-Volmer mechanism. We found good agreement between measured and predicted Tafel plots, indicating that hydrogen oxidation/reduction reaction on Pt(100) takes place via the Heyrovsky-Volmer mechanism under ca. 1 monolayer coverage of inactive adsorbed hydrogen.