A kinetic study of oxygen reduction reaction and characterization on electrodeposited gold nanoparticles of diameter between 17 nm and 40 nm in 0.5 M sulfuric acid

Kinetic and mechanistic studies of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in oxygen saturated 0.5 M sulfuric acid at 298 K at a gold macroelectrode and at an electrodeposited gold nanoparticle-modified glassy carbon electrode are reported. The conditions of electrodeposition are optimized to obtain small nanoparticles of diameter from 17 nm to 40 nm. The mechanism and kinetics of ORR on the gold macroelectrode are investigated and compared with those obtained for nanoparticle-modified electrodes. The mechanism for this system includes two electron and two proton transfers and hydrogen peroxide as the final product. The first electron transfer step corresponding to the reduction of O-2 to O-2(radical anion) is defined as the rate determining step. No significant changes are found for the nanoparticles here employed: electron transfer rate constant (k(0)) is k(0,bulk) = 0.30 cm s(-1) on the bulk material and k(0,nano) = 0.21 cm s(-1) on nanoparticles; transfer coefficient (alpha) changes from alpha(bulk) = 0.45 on macro-scale to alpha(nano) = 0.37 at the nano-scale.