Probing Electrocatalytic Gas Evolution Reaction at Pt by Force Noise Measurements. Part 1-Hydrogen

TL;DR

This study introduces a novel AFM-based force noise technique to monitor hydrogen gas bubble formation and dynamics at a platinum electrode during electrochemical reactions, providing molecular-level insights.

Contribution

It is the first application of AFM force noise measurements to investigate gas evolution at a platinum ultramicroelectrode under electrochemical conditions.

Findings

Detected excess force noise during H2 bubble events

Observed linear variation of noise with potential

Estimated bubble radius from AFM deflection signals

Abstract

Electrocatalytic processes occurring at the heterogeneous interface are complex and their understanding at the molecular level remains challenging. Atomic force microscope (AFM) can detect force interactions down to the atomic level, but so far it has been mainly used to obtain in-situ images of electrocatalysts. Here for the first time, we employ AFM to investigate gas evolution at a platinum ultramicroelectrode (Pt UME) under electrochemical conditions using the force noise method. We detect excess force noise when the individual H2 gas bubble nucleation, growth, and detachment events occur at the Pt UME. The excess noise varies linearly with the applied potential on a semi-log plot. Chronoamperometry current fluctuations indicate that the H2 gas bubble radius increases from 1 to 10 micrometers and the AFM deflection signal measurements indicate that the mean H2 bubble radius is 321 micrometers. These two values point to the coalescence of small bubbles generated at the Pt UME interface. The contribution reports an innovative method to probe the gas bubble dynamics at the heterogenous interface under electrochemical conditions with high sensitivity.