Research Information System
MATERIALS HORIZONS, vol.6, no.7, pp.1481-1487, 2019 (SCI-Expanded)
Pd-Based amorphous alloys can be used for hydrogen energy-related applications owing to their excellent sorption capacities. In this study, the sorption behaviour of dc magnetron-sputtered and chronoamperometrically-saturated Pd-Si-Cu metallic-glass (MG) nanofilms is investigated by means of aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electrochemical techniques. The volume expansion of Delta V = 10.09 angstrom(3) of a palladium hydride unit cell obtained from HRTEM images due to the hydrogenation of the Pd-MG nanofilms is 1.65 times larger than Delta V of the Pd-polycrystalline counterpart loaded under the same conditions. Determined by scanning transmission electron microscopy-high annular dark-field imaging and electron energy loss spectroscopy, the huge difference between the two Pd-based systems is accounted for by the "nanobubbles" originating from hydrogenation, which generate active sites for the formation and expansion of spatially dispersed palladium hydride nanocrystals. A remarkable difference in the hydrogen sorption capacity is measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy compared to the Pd polycrystal nanofilms particularly in the alpha and beta regions, where the maximum hydrogen to palladium ratio obtained from a combination of chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry is 1.56 and 0.61 for the MG and Pd-polycrystal nanofilms, respectively. The findings place Pd-MGs among suitable material candidates for future energy systems.