APPLICATION OF ROTATING DISK ELECTRODE VOLTAMMETRY TO KINETIC AND UNDERPOTENTIAL DEPOSITION STUDIES.

The rotating disk electrode (RDE), the rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) and the sinusoidally hydrodynamically modulated rotating disk electrode (SHMRDE) permit control of mass transport to an electrode surface. The current responses at these various electrodes under a combination of potential and mass transport control provide unique diagnostic criteria to elucidate the mechanism of complex electrochemical reactions. The use of the RRDE (Rotating Ring-Disk Electrode) technique to correlate the underpotential deposition (UPD) of Ag, Cu, Pb or Bl at platinum with the rate of oxidation of formic acid is described. In this case the instantaneous surface coverage of the various adatoms and their preference for UPD on particular platinum single crystal faces is related to the electrooxidation behavior of formic acid at polycrystalline platinum.