Electrochemical capacitance of CO-terminated Pt(111) is dominated by CO-solvent gap

Published

October 17, 2017

Author(s)

Ravishankar Sundararaman, Marta C. Figueiredo, Marc Koper, Kathleen Schwarz

Abstract

The distribution of electric fields within the electrochemical double layer depends on both the electrode and electrolyte in complex ways. These fields strongly influence chemical dynamics in the electrode-electrolyte interface, but cannot be measured directly. We report experimental capacitance measurements for aqueous interfaces of CO-terminated Pt(111). By comparing these measurements with first-principles DFT calculations, we infer microscopic field distributions and decompose contributions to the inverse capacitance from various spatial regions of the interface. We find that most of the interfacial potential difference appears across the gap between the terminating O and water, and not across the CO molecule as previously hypothesized. This 'gap capacitance' resulting from hydrophobic termination lowers the overall capacitance of the aqueous Pt-CO interface, and makes it less sensitive to electrolyte concentration compared to the bare metal.

Citation

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

Pub Type

Journals

Citation

Sundararaman, R. , figueiredo, M. , Koper, M. and Schwarz, K. (2017), Electrochemical capacitance of CO-terminated Pt(111) is dominated by CO-solvent gap, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (Accessed May 7, 2026)

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