Pressure-composition isotherms for palladium hydride

Thickness induced metal to insulator charge transport and unusual hydrogen response in granular palladium nanofilms

This work reports a systematic study of the evolution of charge transport properties in granular ultra-thin films of palladium of thicknesses varying between 6 nm and 2 nm. While the films with thickness >4 nm exhibit metallic behaviour, that at 3 nm thickness undergoes a metal-insulator transition at 19.5 K. In contrast, the 2 nm thick film remained insulating at all temperatures, with transport following Mott's variable range hopping. At room temperature, while the thicker films exhibit resistance decrease upon H2 exposure, the insulating film showed an anomalous initial resistance increase before switching to a subsequent decrease. The nanostructure dependent transport and the ensuing H2 response is modeled on a percolation model, which also explores the relevance of film thickness as a macroscopic control parameter to engineer the desired system response in granular metal films.

Readily Constructed Glass Piston Pump for Gas Recirculation

The recirculation of gases in a sealed reactor system is a broadly useful method in catalytic and electrocatalytic studies. It is especially relevant when a reactant gas reacts slowly with respect to residence time in a catalytic reaction zone and when mass transport control through the reaction zone is necessary. This need is well illustrated in the field of electrocatalytic N₂ reduction, where the need for recirculation of ¹⁵N₂ has recently become more apparent. Herein, we describe the design, fabrication, use, and specifications of a lubricant-free, readily constructed recirculating pump fabricated entirely from glass and inert polymer (poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK), poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE)) components. Using these glass and polymer components ensures chemical compatibility between the piston pump and a wide range of chemical environments, including strongly acidic and organic electrolytes often employed in studies of electrocatalytic N₂ reduction. The lubricant-free nature of the pump and the presence of components made exclusively of glass and PEEK/PTFE mitigate contamination concerns associated with recirculating gases saturated with corrosive or reactive vapors for extended periods. The gas recirculating glass pump achieved a flow rate of >500 mL min^-1 N₂ against atmospheric pressure at 15 W peak power input and >100 mL min^-1 N₂ against a differential pressure of +6 in. H₂O (∼15 mbar) at 10 W peak power input.

The co-reactant role during plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of palladium

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of noble metals is an attractive technology potentially applied in nanoelectronics and catalysis. Unlike the combustion-like mechanism shown by other noble metal ALD processes, the main palladium (Pd) ALD process using palladium(ii)hexafluoroacetylacetonate [Pd(hfac)2] as precursor is based on true reducing surface chemistry. In this work, a thorough investigation of plasma-enhanced Pd ALD is carried out by employing this precursor with different plasmas (H2*, NH3*, O2*) and plasma sequences (H2* + O2*, O2* + H2*) as co-reactants at varying temperatures, providing insights in the co-reactant and temperature dependence of the Pd growth per cycle (GPC). At all temperatures, films grown with only reducing co-reactants contain a large amount of carbon, while an additional O2* in the co-reactant sequence helps to obtain Pd films with much lower impurity concentrations. Remarkably, in situ XRD and SEM show an abrupt release of the carbon impurities during annealing at moderate temperatures in different atmospheres. In vacuo XPS measurements reveal the remaining species on the as-deposited surface after every exposure. Links are established between the particular surface termination prior to the precursor pulse and the observed differences in GPC, highlighting hydrogen as the key growth facilitator and carbon and oxygen as growth inhibitors. The increase in GPC with temperature for ALD sequences with H2* or NH3* prior to the precursor pulse is explained by an increase in the amount of hydrogen species that reside on the Pd surface which are available for reaction with the Pd(hfac)2 precursor.

Directing nitrogen-doped carbon support chemistry for improved aqueous phase hydrogenation catalysis

Influencing stability and performance through directing nitrogen-doping in carbon support materials.

On flexible force fields for metal-organic frameworks: Recent developments and future prospects

Classical force field simulations can be used to study structural, diffusion, and adsorption properties of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). To account for the dynamic behavior of the material, parameterization schemes have been developed to derive force constants and the associated reference values by fitting on ab initio energies, vibrational frequencies, and elastic constants. Here, we review recent developments in flexible force field models for MOFs. Existing flexible force field models are generally able to reproduce the majority of experimentally observed structural and dynamic properties of MOFs. The lack of efficient sampling schemes for capturing stimuli-driven phase transitions, however, currently limits the full predictive potential of existing flexible force fields from being realized. This article is categorized under: Structure and Mechanism > Computational Materials ScienceMolecular and Statistical Mechanics > Molecular Mechanics.

Flexible Force Field Parameterization through Fitting on the Ab Initio-Derived Elastic Tensor

Constructing functional forms and their corresponding force field parameters for the metal–linker interface of metal–organic frameworks is challenging. We propose fitting these parameters on the elastic tensor, computed from ab initio density functional theory calculations. The advantage of this top-down approach is that it becomes evident if functional forms are missing when components of the elastic tensor are off. As a proof-of-concept, a new flexible force field for MIL-47(V) is derived. Negative thermal expansion is observed and framework flexibility has a negligible effect on adsorption and transport properties for small guest molecules. We believe that this force field parametrization approach can serve as a useful tool for developing accurate flexible force field models that capture the correct mechanical behavior of the full periodic structure.

Development of physics based analytical interatomic potential for palladium-hydride

Palladium hydrides (Pd-H) research is an important topic in materials research with many practical industrial applications. The complex behavior of the Pd-H alloy system such as phase miscibility gap, however, presents a huge challenge for developing reliable computational models. The embedded atom method (EAM) offers an advantage of computational efficiency and being suited to the metal-hydride system. We propose a new EAM interatomic potential for the complete mathematical modeling of palladium hydride. The present interatomic potential well predicts the lattice constant, cohesive energy, bulk modulus, other elastic constants, and stable alloy crystal structures during molecular dynamics simulations. The phase miscibility gap is also accurately predicted for the Pd-H system using the present potential. To our knowledge, only two Pd-H EAM potentials were used for predicting the phase miscibility gap for the PdH system. The predicted values from these works, however, considerably deviated from the experimental result, which hinders further application to the palladium hydride system. The present potential is reliably accurate and can be used to study the Pd-H system with its compete description of the mathematical formalism.

Effect of oxidation and catalytic reduction of trace organic contaminants on their activated carbon adsorption

The combination of ozonation and activated carbon (AC) adsorption is an established technology for removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). In contrast to oxidation, reduction of TrOCs has recently gained attention as well, however less attention has gone to the combination of reduction with AC adsorption. In addition, no literature has compared the removal behavior of reduction vs. ozonation by-products by AC. In this study, the effect of pre-ozonation vs pre-catalytic reduction on the AC adsorption efficiency of five TrOCs and their by-products was compared. All compounds were susceptible to oxidation and reduction, however the catalytic reductive treatment proved to be a slower reaction than ozonation. New oxidation products were identified for dinoseb and new reduction products were identified for carbamazepine, bromoxynil and dinoseb. In terms of compatibility with AC adsorption, the influence of the oxidative and reductive pretreatments proved to be compound dependent. Oxidation products of bromoxynil and diatrizoic acid adsorbed better than their parent TrOCs, but oxidation products of atrazine, carbamazepine and dinoseb showed a decreased adsorption. The reductive pre-treatment showed an enhanced AC adsorption for dinoseb and a major enhancement for diatrizoic acid. For atrazine and bromoxynil, no clear influence on adsorption was noted, while for carbamazepine, the reductive pretreatment resulted in a decreased AC affinity. It may thus be concluded that when targeting mixtures of TrOCs, a trade-off will undoubtedly have to be made towards overall reactivity and removal of the different constituents, since no single treatment proves to be superior to the other.

The Chemical Deposition Method for the Decoration of Palladium Particles on Carbon Nanofibers with Rapid Conductivity Changes

Palladium (Pd) metal is well-known for hydrogen sensing material due to its high sensitivity and selectivity toward hydrogen, and is able to detect hydrogen at near room temperature. In this work, palladium-doped carbon nanofibers (Pd/CNFs) were successfully produced in a facile manner via electrospinning. Well-organized and uniformly distributed Pd was observed in microscopic images of the resultant nanofibers. Hydrogen causes an increment in the volume of Pd due to the ability of hydrogen atoms to occupy the octahedral interstitial positions within its face centered cubic lattice structure, resulting in the resistance transition of Pd/CNFs. The resistance variation was around 400%, and it responded rapidly within 1 min, even in 5% hydrogen atmosphere conditions at room temperature. This fibrous hybrid material platform will open a new and practical route and stimulate further researches on the development of hydrogen sensing materials with rapid response, even to low concentrations of hydrogen in an atmosphere.

Hydrogen sensing with Pd-coated long-range surface plasmon membrane waveguides

A low power, reusable optical hydrogen sensor using long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) cladded membrane waveguides is demonstrated. The sensor incorporates a 5 μm wide, 20 nm thick gold stripe embedded in a 160 nm thick free-standing Cytop membrane with a 5 nm thick Pd over-layer. Input and output coupling is achieved with directly integrated broadside grating couplers. The sensor is tested with hydrogen concentrations up to 3% and demonstrates a strong response with an estimated detection limit of 290 ppm, and a response time of 7 s to a 0.6% H2 step - this level of performance is among the best reported for optical H2 sensors. Cycling of the hydrogen exposure shows a significant hysteresis response, however no film deformation or delamination was observed over many cycles. The high stress that is induced in clamped films during hydrogenation is relaxed in due to the film being deposited on the flexible and elastic Cytop membrane. This could result in improved lifetimes for this sensor and increased uptake ability.

A self-heated silicon nanowire array: selective surface modification with catalytic nanoparticles by nanoscale Joule heating and its gas sensing applications

We demonstrated novel methods for selective surface modification of silicon nanowire (SiNW) devices with catalytic metal nanoparticles by nanoscale Joule heating and local chemical reaction. The Joule heating of a SiNW generated a localized heat along the SiNW and produced endothermic reactions such as hydrothermal synthesis of nanoparticles or thermal decomposition of polymer thin films. In the first method, palladium (Pd) nanoparticles could be selectively synthesized and directly coated on a SiNW by the reduction of the Pd precursor via Joule heating of the SiNW. In the second method, a sequential process composed of thermal decomposition of a polymer, evaporation of a Pd thin film, and a lift-off process was utilized. The selective decoration of Pd nanoparticles on SiNW was successfully accomplished by using both methods. Finally, we demonstrated the applications of SiNWs decorated with Pd nanoparticles as hydrogen detectors. We also investigated the effect of self-heating of the SiNW sensor on its sensing performance.

Multiscale Theoretical Modeling of Plasmonic Sensing of Hydrogen Uptake in Palladium Nanodisks

We study theoretically the optical properties of palladium nanodisks during hydrogen uptake. A combination of an ab initio quantum mechanical description of the Pd-H dielectric properties and a full electrodynamical study of light scattering in the H-modified Pd nanodisks allows us to trace the shift of the localized surface plasmon as a function of the H concentration in the Pd-H disk. We follow the evolution of the plasmon peak energy for different admixtures of the Pd-H α and β phases and interpret quantitatively the experimental sensitivity of the plasmon energy shift to the structural inhomogeneity upon H absorption. Our multiscale theoretical framework provides a solid background for plasmonic sensing of structural domains, as well as for identifying H saturation conditions in metal hydride systems.

Diffusion of Hydrides in Palladium Nanoclusters. A Ring-Polymer Molecular Dynamics Study of Quantum Finite Size Effects

The diffusion kinetics of hydrogen in bulk palladium and in Pd nanoclusters containing up to 512 atoms has been theoretically investigated at 3% loading using ring-polymer molecular dynamics simulations. The electronic ground-state energy surfaces are modeled using an explicit many-body potential fitted to reproduce the properties of bulk palladium and palladium hydrides. The diffusion constant, calculated by integration of the velocity autocorrelation function, shows Arrhenius behavior with inverse temperature. In addition, both the prefactor and activation energy are found to exhibit approximately linear variations with inverse cluster radius for sizes exceeding 128 Pd atoms. Vibrational delocalization generally enhances diffusion, this effect being stronger in clusters than in bulk. An inherent structure analysis from the positions of the centroids was used to characterize the diffusion mechanisms. Quantum effects lead to not only a higher coordination of hydrogen atoms both in bulk (fcc) palladium and in clusters but also favor further softening of the outer layers.