Template-Assisted Electrodeposition of Porous Fe–Ni–Co Nanowires with Vigorous Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

A novel method to fabricate porous Fe–Ni–Co nanowires directly by electrodepositing into polycarbonate membranes is reported when the electrolyte pH < 0.5. Hydrogen bubbles are used as a dynamic porous template created by operating in electrolytes with very low pH to drive the proton reduction reaction. The electrolyte pH was adjusted with sulfuric acid, and the added sulfate ions are thought to help reduce bubble coalescence, but not detachment at the electrode surface, to facilitate metal deposition within the nanopores. Porous nanowires were obtained when the electrolyte pH was less than 1.0. The average alloy composition was found to be pH sensitive, which shifted from an Fe-rich porous alloy to a Ni-rich porous alloy as the electrolyte pH decreased.

Electrodeposition of (hydro)oxides for an oxygen evolution electrode

“…Most of these materials can be electrodeposited using template methods. Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), [91][92][93] ZnO nanorods, 48,94 hydrogen/oxygen bubbles, [95][96][97] and polystyrene 69,98 have been widely used as templates. Electrodeposition ensures the uniform production of high-density 3D materials since it allows complete inlling of the space between the template spheres from the bottom to the top layers.…”

Additive Manufacturing of Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems Electrodes

“…Electrodeposition effectively controls and synthesizes magnetic alloys or intrinsically conductive polymers via tunable specs such as pH, additives, temperature, and current density. [39] Therefore, template-assisted electrodeposition (TAE) has been widely used to produce micro-to nanofeatured wires, [40][41][42] tubes, [43,44] and films [45,46] for electrochemical purposes via pregrown or etched templates. Utilization of TAE as an AMT, however, often requires another 3D printing method to first process a 3D template for electrodeposition.…”

A facile template-assisted electrodeposition approach to porous Cu/Cu2O nanowires

“…When bubble growth is conned inside nanopores of a hard template, i.e., dual-template assisted electrodeposition, PNs can be straightforwardly prepared. For example, Podlaha 11 and coworkers successfully fabricated Fe-Ni-Co PNs into porous polycarbonate membranes at low pH by adopting nanosized hydrogen bubbles as a dynamic template. This method strongly relies upon the concentrations of protons and the bubble stabilizer to maintain sufficient, however nanosized, bubble generation.…”