A contribution to the mechanism of “reduced” CO₂ adsorbates electro-oxidation from combined spectroelectrochemical and voltammetric data

Abstract

The nature of reduced CO₂ adsorbates, as well as the mechanisms for their electro-oxidation on platinum, have been reviewed through the light of new experimental data obtained by cyclic voltammetry and by Fourier transform infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Three different “reduced” CO₂ adsorbates are described as “‘ensembles”. It is suggested that they involve different extents of adsorbed entities, among which weakly bound and strongly bound hydrogen atoms play the most important role.