Bd. Smith et al., A SURFACE-ENHANCED RAMAN-SCATTERING STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE AND POISONING SPECIES FORMED DURING THE ELECTROCHEMICAL REDUCTION OF CO2 ON COPPER, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 144(12), 1997, pp. 4288-4296
Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been used to study the el
ectrochemical reduction of CO2 on the copper electrode surface. The ef
fect of different oxidation reduction cycles (ORCs) on the observed SE
RS has been investigated. A modification of the ORCs has been used to
create sites which provide stable SERS, allowing exploration of the me
chanism of CO2 reduction. The experimental conditions required to obse
rve SERS in this system are described. The time-dependent decay of the
SERS bands and the time-dependent increase of a new band, attributed
to the formation of a poisoning species, have been measured the interm
ediate species is CO2 the poisoning species is a copper oxide patina.