New Insights of the pH Effect on Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions Mechanisms in Alkaline Solutions
Authors: Liu Ershuai , Mukerjee Sanjeev , Jia Qingying 
Published: July 2021

The sluggish kinetics of the hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions (HER/HOR) of Pt in alkaline solutions remains elusive. Elucidation of the mechanisms of the HER/HOR in alkaline can not only deepen our understandings of alkaline electrochemistry, but also help to rationalize the design of highly active catalysts for alkaline fuel cells and electrolyzers. Herein, we investigate the HER/HOR kinetics of a variety of catalysts including monometallic catalysts (Ni, Pt, Ru, Au) and bimetallic catalysts (NiMo, Pt-M) by comparing their HER/HOR performance in 0.1 M KOH and 1 M KOH. We found that the HER/HOR kinetics of these systems are not always slower in 1 M KOH (pH =14) than in 0.1 M KOH (pH = 13). These observations do not follow the general trend that the HER/HOR kinetics of a wide range of elements slows down with increasing pH1. We propose to resolve this inconsistency by pointing out that the pH is only one of the factors that affect the transport of the HER/HOR intermediates (hydroxyl for HER, Had for HOR) throughout the double layer region, among other factors such as the oxophicility of the surface sites, the cation environment, etc. These factors co-determine the HER/HOR kinetics of catalysts (such as Pt/C) that is limited by the transport of reactions throughout the double layer region. As the electrolyte changes from 0.1 M KOH to 1 M KOH, the pH shifts from 13 to 14, slowing down the HER/HOR kinetics. Meanwhile, the K+ concentration increases one order of magnitude, which promotes the transport of OHad according to the hard-soft acid-base (HSAB) mechanism we recently proposed 2, thereby improving the HER but not the HOR until the K+ saturates. The change of the HER/HOR kinetics of a catalyst as the electrolyte changes from 0.1 M KOH to 1 M KOH is a counterbalance between these two effects, and thus varies case by case.

Acknowledgements.
This work was supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) under award number DE-EE0008082, Office of Naval Research (ONR) under award number N000141712608 and the Graduate Thesis/Dissertation Grant of Northeastern University. This research used beamline 7-BM (QAS) and 8-ID (ISS) of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.

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