Energetics and mechanism for hydroxyl radical production from the Pt-catalyzed decomposition of water

L. D. Talley*, Ming-Chang Lin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The catalytic decomposition of H2O over a polycrystalline platinum surface has been studied in a low pressure flow system. Hydroxyl radicals were detected in gaseous decomposition products above about 820 K by laser-induced fluorescence at 300 nm. The activation energy for the HO desorption process, HO* → HO(g)+*, was determined to be 30 ± 1 kcal/mol, which is in excellent agreement with the values reported previously for the Pt-catalyzed oxidation of H2 by O2 and N2O. The effects of added H2, D2 and O2 on HO formation were also investigated and the observed data can be satisfactorily accounted for by a mechanism which involves chemically adsorbed H, O and HO species. A similar but brief experiment was carried out for the catalytic decomposition of NH3 over the same catalyst. However, no NH or NH2 radicals were detected in gaseous decomposition products up to 1100 K.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)249-255
Number of pages7
JournalChemical Physics
Volume61
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Oct 1981

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