Hydrogen evolution on single crystal copper and silver - a theoretical study

E. SANTOS, A. LUNDIN, K. PÖTTING, P. QUAINO AND W. SCHMICKLER

Chemphyschem

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Año: 2010 vol. 11 p. 1491 - 1495

1439-4235

Hydrogen evolution on single crystal copper and silver has been investi- gated by a combination of density functional theory and a theory developed in our own group. At short times, the reaction rate is determined by the transfer of the rst proton to the electrode surface. In accord with experiment, we nd for both metals that this reaction proceeds faster on the (111) surfaces than on the (100). The main cause is the lower, i.e. more favourable, adsorp- tion energy on the former surfaces. On both silver surfaces, the second step is electrochemical desorption. The same mechanism is likely to operate on copper.