Vibrational study of adsorbed phosphate ions on rhodium single crystal electrodes

The adsorption of H2PO4− ions was studied on low Miller index rhodium single crystal electrodes by in situ FTIR spectroscopy. It is found that for Rh(1 0 0) and Rh(1 1 0), H2PO4− ions are the major species at low potentials, but at higher potentials, some of the H2PO4− ions undergo a potential induced deprotonation and probably there is a mixture of H2PO4− and HPO42− ions. On Rh(1 1 1) the deprotonation starts at very low potentials and at higher potentials the H2PO4− is fully converted to HPO42−. The behavior of the band center and of the band intensity with the applied potential was also analyzed. It is found that the adsorption increases from 0.08 V vs. a Pd–H2 electrode up to 0.5 V and then it decreases when the OH starts to be adsorbed.