Thirty years of platinum single crystal electrochemistry

The electrochemistry of platinum single crystals is historically reviewed. After a brief revision of historical results dating before the publication of the landmark experiment by J. Clavilier of the flame annealing in 1980, the controversy introduced by this experiment into the surface electrochemistry community is described. Questions about the structure and composition of the platinum surface after the flame annealing and their implications on the characteristic voltammetry of platinum single crystal electrodes were slowly answered in the years that followed the first introduction of this methodology. One of the last questions to be solved was that about the nature of the chemical species responsible for the charge transfer process that leads to the so-called unusual features in the voltammogram. This was solved with the charge displacement experiment. Nowadays, a great deal of knowledge has been gathered about the structure of the interphase between platinum electrodes and electrolytic solutions and also about the electrocatalytic behaviour of platinum surfaces. State-of-the-art information about platinum electrochemistry is provided, with emphasis on results from our group, especially those obtained with a thermodynamic analysis, involving either constant or variable temperatures and with the laser-induced temperature jump method.