The influence of reactive side products in electrocatalytic reactions: methanol oxidation as case study.

The role and impact of follow-up processes involving reactive side products in an electrocatalytic reaction is demonstrated for the electrooxidation of methanol at a Pt electrode. By using combined in situ infrared spectroscopy and online mass spectrometry and employing isotope-labeling techniques, it is shown that even small amounts of the incomplete oxidation products formaldehyde and formic acid have pronounced effects on the reaction.