Kinetic Study of Formic Acid Oxidation on Carbon Supported Platinum Electrocatalyst

Abstract

The kinetic parameters, such as Tafel slope, charge transfer coefficient and the diffusion coefficient of formic acid electrooxidation were obtained under the quasi steady-state conditions. The Tafel plot exhibits two linear regions with the same values of 340 mV. The charge transfer coefficient is 0.32 and the diffusion coefficient is calculated to be 1.01×10⁻⁷ cm² s⁻¹. The temperature dependence of the formic acid oxidation in the temperature range of 20∼60°C was also investigated. The results have shown that the oxidation reaction was sensitive to temperature and the activation energy was increased with increasing potential at the potential range of 0.1–0.5 V.