title: A kinetic study of oxygen reduction reaction and characterization on electrodeposited gold nanoparticles of diameter between 17 nm and 40 nm in 0.5 M sulfuric acid.
abstract: Kinetic and mechanistic studies of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in oxygen saturated 0.5 M sulfuric acid at 298 K at a gold macroelectrode and at an electrodeposited gold nanoparticle-modified glassy carbon electrode are reported. The conditions of electrodeposition are optimized to obtain small nanoparticles of diameter from 17 nm to 40 nm. The mechanism and kinetics of ORR on the gold macroelectrode are investigated and compared with those obtained for nanoparticle-modified electrodes. The mechanism for this system includes two electron and two proton transfers and hydrogen peroxide as the final product. The first electron transfer step corresponding to the reduction of O2 to O2(-)˙ is defined as the rate determining step. No significant changes are found for the nanoparticles here employed: electron transfer rate constant (k0) is k0,bulk = 0.30 cm s(-1) on the bulk material and k0,nano = 0.21 cm s(-1) on nanoparticles; transfer coefficient (α) changes from αbulk = 0.45 on macro-scale to αnano = 0.37 at the nano-scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ, UK. richard.compton@chem.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Laborda
authors.forename: Kristopher R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tschulik
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Compton