Enhancing the activity of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial for fuel cell development, but hydrophobic species used to boost ORR activity are often toxic. Here, the authors report that caffeine enhances the specific ORR activity of Pt(111) eleven-fold compared to that without caffeine in a 0.1 M HClO4 aqueous solution, and find that the enhancement mechanism depends strongly on the surface structures of platinum.
- Nagahiro Hoshi
- Masashi Nakamura
- Rui Suzuki
