LAUSR

Abstract Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is an effective oxidizing agent that is commonly used in industry. In the presence of metal catalysts, H 2 O 2 can decompose into water and oxygen. Understanding this process at a fundamental level is extremely important for a number of industrial applications, e.g. the direct synthesis of H 2 O 2 from H 2 and O 2 . Here, we studied the rates of H 2 O 2 decomposition on Pt/n-Si catalysts using a chemicurrent approach that is based on the detection of hot electrons created during dissociative adsorption of H 2 O 2 molecules on platinum. We showed that both the rate of H 2 O 2 decomposition and the corresponding chemicurrent are sensitive to the pH of the reactive solution. This phenomenon is explained by variation of the potential barrier for electron transfer at the Pt/solution interface caused by adsorption of H + and OH − species from the solution on the catalytic surface.