Sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy of pyridine hydrogenation on platinum nanoparticles

Pyridine hydrogenation in the presence of a surface monolayer consisting of cubic Pt nanoparticles stabilized by tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) was investigated by sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy using total internal reflection (TIR) geometry. TIR-SFG spectra analysis revealed that a pyridinium cation (C5H5NH+) forms during pyridine hydrogenation on the Pt nanoparticle surface, and the NH group in the C5H5NH+ cation becomes more hydrogen bound with the increase of the temperature. In addition, the surface coverage of the cation decreases with the increase of the temperature. An important contribution of this study is the in situ identification of reaction intermediates adsorbed on the Pt nanoparticle monolayer during pyridine hydrogenation.