General strategy for evaluating the d-band center shift and ethanol oxidation reaction pathway towards Pt-based electrocatalysts

The catalytic performance of Pt-based catalysts depends sensitively on their d-band centers. Nevertheless, there are still huge challenges to evaluate their d-band centers from experimental technologies, and modulate them to analyze their selectivity in ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). Here, Pt1Au1 alloy supported on the commercial carbon material (Pt1Au1/C) is employed as a typical example to investigate its d-band center shift of surface Pt, and as electrocatalysts to study its selectivity towards EOR. Significantly, a highly reliable in situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy CO-probe strategy is developed to characterize the d-band center shift of surface Pt. The modified electronic effect and site effect of Pt1Au1/C dictated the adsorption configuration of intermediate species and the OH species coverage, thereby influencing its selectivity. More importantly, we developed a universal cyclic voltammetry peak differentiation fitting method as an electrochemical analysis technique to investigate CO2 selectivity, which is potentially extendable to other Pt-based electrocatalysts.