Electrochemical Faceting of polycrystalline platinum in HF solutions

The electrochemical faceting of polycrystalline (pc) platinum yielding a (100)-preferred oriented electrode surface was accomplished in HF solutions by applying to the pc platinum electrode a square wave potential perturbation at 1 kHz in the 0.2 to 1.3 V range (vs rhe). SEM patterns of the resulting surfaces were also obtained. For HF concentrations up to 2 M no appreciable influence of the electrolyte concentration on the electrochemical faceting was noticed. Otherwise, the voltammetric response of the (100)-type preferred oriented platinum surface in the H-adatom potential range when compared to previously reported data resulted remarkably sensitive to the electrolyte composition. The discussion of results was based on the non-equilibrium adsorption conditions for anions under the periodic perturbation.