Kinetics of electrooxidation of a CO monolayer at the platinum/electrolyte interface

The kinetics of electrooxidation of a complete monolayer of carbon monoxide (CO) at the Pt/electrolyte interface is studied both theoretically and experimentally. Recent studies indicate that CO diffusion is an important process affecting considerably the CO oxidation reaction. By comparing experimental and theoretical results, it is argued that the reaction kinetics is significantly affected by CO diffusion over the electrode surface. On the other hand, the diffusion is found not to be fast enough in order to reach the simple Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics since the transient width depends very sensitively on the density of surface defects.