Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier for replacing fossil fuels, and hydrogen production via hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an environmentally friendly option if electrocatalysts with low overpotentials and long-term stability are used. In this work, the electrocatalytic performance of Pt57.5Cu14.7Ni5.3P22.5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) with flat, micro-patterned, and nano-patterned surfaces for HER in 0.5 M H2SO4 is studied. The nano-patterned Pt-BMG demonstrates outstanding long-term stability and self-improving behavior with a final overpotential of 150 mV and a Tafel slope of 42 mVdec−1 after 1000 linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) cycles, which is respectively 42% and 37% lower than in the first LSV cycle. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) indicate the formation of a layer of CuO/Cu2O foam deposited on top of the nano-patterned surface during the stability test of 1000 LSV cycles. A three-step process is proposed to explain the formation of CuxO foam via dynamic hydrogen bubble templating (DHBT) electrodeposition from Cu dissolution of the Pt-BMG without using copper salt. This work provides a method to create CuxO foams that could be used for various applications. Moreover, nano-patterned BMGs with DHBT deposition offer a feasible strategy to synthesize metal or metal-oxide foams.
@article{arxiv.2406.14079,
title = {Nano-Patterned Pt-Based Metallic Glass Electrocatalysts with In-Situ Copper Oxide Foam for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution},
author = {Fei-Fan Cai and Baran Sarac and Adnan Akman and Juan J. Londoño and Selin Gümrükcü and Lukas Schweiger and Martin Hantusch and Jan Schroers and Andreas Blatter and Annett Gebert and Florian Spieckermann and Jürgen Eckert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.14079},
year = {2024}
}