Engineering Work Function to Stabilize Metal Oxides in Reactive Hydrogen

Hydrogen, crucial for the green energy transition, poses a challenge due to its tendency to degrade surrounding wall materials. To harness hydrogen's potential, it is essential to identify materials' parameter(s) that modulate hydrogen-material interaction. In a recent publication, we have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2024-11
Main Authors: Rehman, Abdul, Robbert W E van de Kruijs, Wesley T E van den Beld, Sturm, Jacobus M, Ackermann, Marcelo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clean energy
Hydrogen
Metal oxides
Oxidation
Parameter identification
Transition metals
Work functions
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Summary:Hydrogen, crucial for the green energy transition, poses a challenge due to its tendency to degrade surrounding wall materials. To harness hydrogen's potential, it is essential to identify materials' parameter(s) that modulate hydrogen-material interaction. In a recent publication, we have shown that the reduction (de-nitridation) of transition metal (TM)-nitrides in hydrogen radicals (H*) stops when their work function drops below a threshold limit. In this work, we tailor the work function of a complex TM-oxide by tuning the relative content of its constituent TM-atoms. We show that increasing the fraction of a low work function TM decreases the work function of the complex oxide, thereby decreasing its reducibility (de-oxidation) in H*. This leads to the stabilization of the higher oxidation states of a high work function TM, which otherwise readily reduce in H*. We propose that the work function serves as a tuneable parameter, modulating the interaction of hydrogen with TM compounds.
ISSN:2331-8422