SFG study of the ethanol in an acidic medium--Pt(110) interface: effects of the alcohol concentration.

Ethanol in an acidic solution-Pt(110) interface was studied by SFG spectroscopy (between 1820 and 2325 cm(-1)) to explore primarily the effects of the alcohol concentration. Stretching bands of H-Pt (ca. 1970 or 2050 cm(-1)) and CO (ca. 1980 and 2040 cm(-1)) species, produced by the ethanol oxidation, were detected during the adsorption and oxidation of 0-1 mol L(-1) ethanol in a 0.1 mol L(-1) HClO(4) solution on the electrode surface. Hydrogen and CO coadsorb stably on Pt(110) between 0.05 and 0.15 V in ethanol-containing solutions. In this potential range, the blue shift of the hydrogen resonance (ca. 80 cm(-1)) reveals a weakening of the hydrogen bonding between adsorbed hydrogen and water molecules in the double layer. After the hydrogen desorption (0.15 V), the formation of compact CO islands, depending on the ethanol concentration, lifts the Pt(110) surface reconstruction. In ethanol-free solution, the surface remains reconstructed. The lower-frequency CO band is assigned to the CO species adsorbed on (1 x 2) reconstructed Pt(110) domains, having smaller local coverages, while the higher-frequency CO band is attributed to the close-packed CO species adsorbed on (1 x 1) patches. The reaction pathway forming CO(2) is less favored with increasing ethanol concentration.