First observation of platinum-195 nuclear magnetic resonance in commercial graphite-supported platinum electrodes in an electrochemical environment

As a first step toward the long-term goal of achieving a better understanding of CO tolerance in Pt/Ru fuel cell materials, the first observation is presented on ¹⁹⁵Pt NMR in commercial, graphite-supported nanoscale platinum electrodes in an electrochemical environment. Electrochemically cleaned platinum electrodes in electrolyte solutions show ¹⁹⁵Pt NMR spectra characteristics of small platinum particles with clean surfaces, very similar to those obtained from typical gas-phase catalysts, but the slow beat observed at the conventional surface peak position (1.100 G/kHz) indicates that the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) J coupling is almost twice that seen in the gas-phase case, which suggests a major enhancement of the s-like local density of states at the Fermi level (E_f-LDOS).