Electrosorption of hydrogen into palladium–rhodium alloys

Hierarchically Structured Nanoporous Palladium with Ordered/Disordered Channels for Ultrahigh and Fast Strain

Metallic actuators have increasingly shown the potential to replace conventional piezoelectric ceramics and conducting polymers. However, it is still a great challenge to achieve strain amplitudes over 4% while maintaining fast strain responses. Herein, we fabricated bulk nanoporous palladium (NP-Pd) with microsheet-array-like hierarchically nanoporous (MAHNP) structure by dealloying a eutectic Al-Pd precursor. The hierarchical structure consists of array-like microsized channels/sheets and disordered nanosized networks. The locally ordered channels play a critical role in fast mass transport while nanoligaments accumulate a large surface area for hydrogen adsorption/absorption and desorption. Therefore, the MAHNP-Pd not only obtains a fast strain rate with the maximum value close to 1 × 10^-4 s^-1 but also exhibits an ultrahigh strain amplitude of 4.68%, exceeding all reported values for bulk electrochemical metallic actuators to date. Additionally, the superiority of the MAHNP structure is demonstrated in transport kinetics as benchmarked with the scenario of unimodal NP-Pd.

Effect of Hydrogen Electrosorption on Mechanical and Electronic Properties of Pd80Rh20 Alloy

The interaction of hydrogen with Pt-group metals and alloys is at the center of research in the fields of electrochemistry, electrocatalysis, hydrogen technologies and fuel cells developed under the Hydrogen Economy. In this work, the material under study was Pd₈₀Rh₂₀ alloy (50 μm foil) subjected to hydrogen electrosorption at potentials corresponding to formation of α, α-β and β phase in 0.1 M H₂SO₄ at 25 °C. The total amount of hydrogen adsorbed at the surface and absorbed in octahedral interstitial positions of fcc Pd₈₀Rh₂₀ alloy, was determined from the oxidation charges. The H/(Pd+Rh) was 0.002, 0.4 and 0.8 for α, α-β, and β Pd₈₀Rh₂₀H, respectively. Microindentation hardness testing and nanoindentation showed weakening of mechanical properties of the Pd₈₀Rh₂₀ alloy after hydrogen electrosorption due to internal stresses. Decrease of work function with increasing amount of hydrogen absorbed occurred due to the surface roughness changes and the presence of electropositive hydrogen atoms absorbed in the crystal lattice responsible for the dipole interaction. The detailed mechanism of hydrogen absorption/diffusion in the Pd₈₀Rh₂₀ alloy structure is discussed. The obtained results give a new insight into the relationship between the amount of absorbed hydrogen and mechanical and electronic properties of the Pd₈₀Rh₂₀ alloy at the micro- and nanoscale.

Surfactant-Free Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide Supported Well-Defined Polyhedral Pd-Pt Nanocrystals for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Well-defined polyhedral Pd-Pt nanocrystals anchored on the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) are successfully synthesized via a facile and efficient surfactant-free solvothermal route. The formation mechanism is carefully illustrated via tuning the surface state of rGO substrate and the Pd/Pt ratio in Pd-Pt nanocrystals. rGO substrates with continuous smooth surface, which can offer continuous 2D larger π electrons, play important roles in the formation of the well-defined polyhedral Pd-Pt nanocrystals. Suitable Pd/Pt ratio, which determines the affinity between the rGO substrate and polyhedral Pd-Pt nanocrystals, is another important factor for the formation of polyhedral Pd-Pt nanocrystals. Due to the well-defined surface of Pd-Pt nanocrystals, rich corners and edges from polyhedral structure, as well as more exposed (111) facets, the low-Pt polyhedral Pd-Pt nanocrystals anchored on rGO, used as electrocatalysts, exhibit high electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction with excellent methanol tolerance.

Comparative Physicochemical and Electrochemical Characterization of the Structure and Composition of Thin Pd Binary and Ternary Codeposits with Pt, Ru, and Rh

Pd-Ru, Pd-Rh, Pd-Pt-Ru, and Pd-Rh-Ru electrodes were prepared as thin layers by potentiostatic codeposition or chemical co-precipitation of metals from baths containing mixtures of chloride salts. The formation of substitutional solid solutions, with lattice parameters smaller than that of pure Pd, was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The compositions at various levels of sample volume and thickness were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and also electrochemically by cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. The differences between surface, subsurface, and bulk compositions were compared for various systems in a wide composition spectrum.

Enhanced Kinetics of Electrochemical Hydrogen Uptake and Release by Palladium Powders Modified by Electrochemical Atomic Layer Deposition

Electrochemical atomic layer deposition (E-ALD) is a method for the formation of nanofilms of materials, one atomic layer at a time. It uses the galvanic exchange of a less noble metal, deposited using underpotential deposition (UPD), to produce an atomic layer of a more noble element by reduction of its ions. This process is referred to as surface limited redox replacement and can be repeated in a cycle to grow thicker deposits. It was previously performed on nanoparticles and planar substrates. In the present report, E-ALD is applied for coating a submicron-sized powder substrate, making use of a new flow cell design. E-ALD is used to coat a Pd powder substrate with different thicknesses of Rh by exchanging it for Cu UPD. Cyclic voltammetry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate an increasing Rh coverage with increasing numbers of deposition cycles performed, in a manner consistent with the atomic layer deposition (ALD) mechanism. Cyclic voltammetry also indicated increased kinetics of H sorption and desorption in and out of the Pd powder with Rh present, relative to unmodified Pd.

Hydrogen electrosorption into Pd-Cd nanostructures

Hydrogen-absorbing materials are crucial for both the purification and storage of hydrogen. Pd and Pd-based alloys have been studied extensively for their use as both hydrogen dissociation catalysts and hydrogen selective membrane materials. It is known that incorporating metal atoms of different sizes into the Pd lattice has a major impact on the hydrogen absorption process. In this paper, hydrogen electrosorption into nanostructured Pd-Cd alloys has been studied for different compositions of Cd that varied from 0 to 15 at. %. The low cost of Cd makes it an attractive material to combine with Pd for hydrogen sorption. A combination of chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetric experiments was used to determine the ratio of the H/(Pd + Cd) and the kinetics of hydrogen sorption into these Pd-Cd alloys at different potentials. It was found that the maximum H/(Pd + Cd) value was 0.66 for pure Pd, and this decreased with increasing the amount of Cd. Also, the alpha (solid solution) to beta phase (metal hydride) hydrogen transition was determined to be the slowest step in the absorption process and was practically eliminated when an optimum amount of Cd atoms was doped (i.e., Pd-Cd(15%)). With increasing the amount of Cd, more hydrogen was absorbed into the Pd-Cd nanostructures at the higher potentials (the alpha phase region). The faster kinetics, along with the decrease in the phase transition of hydrogen sorption into the Pd-Cd nanostructures when compared to pure Pd, makes the Pd-Cd nanostructures attractive for use as a hydrogen dissociation catalytic capping layer for other metal hydrides or as a hydrogen selective membrane.

Formation and evaluation of electrochemically-active ultra-thin palladium–Nafion nanocomposite films

A simple method for producing electrochemically-active palladium nanoparticles within ultra-thin Nafion films is described.