EFFECT OF MOLECULAR MOBILITY ON KINETICS OF AN ELECTROCHEMICAL LANGMUIR-HINSHELWOOD REACTION

A simple model to study the kinetics of a Langmuir-Hinsnelwood surface reaction is developed and applied to the oxidation of a complete mono layer of CO molecules at a metal/electrolyte interface in a potential- step experiment. A dramatic influence of the molecular mobility on the reaction kinetics is found. The present model is able to connect the simple Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics to that predicted by Kolmogoroff- Avrami theory since it includes them as the two limiting cases of high and low mobility, respectively. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.