Determination of the Real Surface Area of Palladium Electrode

Four methods, including voltammetric measurement of double layer capacitance, surface oxides reduction, under potential deposition of Cu and carbon monoxide (CO) stripping have been applied to evaluate the real surface area of a polycrystalline Pd (pc-Pd) electrode. The results reveal that the second and third methods lead to consistent results with deviations below 5%. And from the determined double layer capacitance and CO stripping charge, it is deduced that the double layer capacity unit area is 23.1 +/- 0.4 mu F/cm(2) and the saturated CO adlayer should be ca. 0.66 ML in order to ensure that the real surface area as determined is consistent with the other two techniques. The applicability as well as the attentions when applying these techniques for the determination of the real surface area of pc-Pd electrodes have been discussed.