Abstract
CATALYSIS is usually defined as the enhancement of the rate of a chemical reaction by a substance, not consumed in the reaction, called the catalyst. The special case of catalysing the electrode reactions in a fuel cell in which a fuel or oxygen must react electrochemically with the production or consumption of charged species at anode or cathode deserves a special name because in many ways this process is expected to be qualitatively different from ordinary catalysis. The name electrocatalysis has been suggested1, and this seems to be a convenient term to highlight the distinction noted here. Electrocatalysis may be defined as the enhancement of the rate of an electrochemical reaction by a substance, not consumed in the reaction, called the electrocatalyst1.
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References
Liebhafsky, H. A., has suggested the use of this term in connexion with fuel cells. Since then, a search of Chemical Abstracts showed that this term had been used on a few occasions by Russian investigators in connexion with the cathodic hydrogenation of organic compounds (Chem. Abst., 30, 8040; 1936. 34, 1256, 3186; 1940).
Liebhafsky, H. A., and Cairns, E. J., Proc. 1962 Pacific Energy Conversion Conf., San Francisco, California (Dec. 1962).
Grubb, W. T., Proc. Sixteenth Ann. Power Sources Conf., Atlantic City, N.J., 31 (May 1962).
McKee, D. W., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 84, 4427 (1962).
McKee, D. W., J. Phys. Chem., 67, 841 (1963).
Niedrach, L. W., J. Electrochem. Soc., 109, 1092 (1962).
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GRUBB, W. Catalysis, Electrocatalysis, and Hydrocarbon Fuel Cells. Nature 198, 883–884 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/198883b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/198883b0
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