Limiting oxygen coverage on platinized platinum; Relevance to determination of real platinum area by hydrogen adsorption

Summary A limiting oxygen coverage is found on platinized platinum electrodes and identified as a monolayer of chemisorbed oxygen atoms. Evidence is presented to support a realistic separation of hydrogen adsorption and evolution currents on linear sweep voltammograms in order to determine the hydrogen monolayer charge. Comparison with the hydrogen monolayer charge shows the stoichiometry of the oxygen monolayer to be 2 oxygen atoms/surface platinum atom for both smooth and platinized platinum electrodes. The problems involved in interpreting hydrogen adsorption measurements in terms of real electrode areas are discussed.