Abstract
Ni-Pt alloy thin films have been successfully synthesized and characterized; the films were prepared by the supercritical fluid chemical deposition (SFCD) technique from Ni(hfac)2·3H2O and Pt(hfac)2 precursors by hydrogen reduction. The results indicated that the deposition rate of the Ni-Pt alloy thin films decreased with increasing Ni content and gradually increased as the precursor concentration was increased. The film peaks determined by X-ray diffraction shifted to lower diffraction angles with decreasing Ni content. The deposited films were single-phase polycrystalline Ni-Pt solid solution and it exhibited smooth, continuous, and uniform distribution on the substrate for all elemental compositions as determined by scanning electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy analyses. In the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, the intensity of the Pt 4f peaks of the films decreased as the Ni content increased, and vice versa for the Ni 2p peak intensities. Furthermore, based on the depth profiles determined by XPS, there was no evidence of atomic diffusion between Pt and Ni, which indicated alloy formation in the film. Therefore, Ni-Pt alloy films deposited by the SFCD technique can be used as a suitable model for catalytic reactions due to their high activity and good stability for various reactions.
Highlights
The development of novel functional micro- and nanomaterials such as thin films [1,2], nanoparticles [3,4], nanowires [5,6], and nanorods [7,8] has attracted the interest of both scientists and industrial societies around the world
Ni-Pt alloy thin films were synthesized by the supercritical fluid chemical deposition (SFCD) technique from a precursor mixture of Ni(hfac)2 ·3H2 O and Pt(hfac)2 with various elemental compositions via hydrogen reduction at different deposition temperatures, obtaining shiny, continuous, and reflective films
After the deposition of Ni-Pt alloy thin films, the film thickness was analyzed by Dektak-150 measurement (Table S1) and the deposition rates were calculated by dividing the total thickness by the deposition time
Summary
The development of novel functional micro- and nanomaterials such as thin films [1,2], nanoparticles [3,4], nanowires [5,6], and nanorods [7,8] has attracted the interest of both scientists and industrial societies around the world. One of the metal alloy films with the greatest development interest is Ni-Pt alloy thin films, which are widely used in many applications such as magnetic microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices [31], polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) cathodes [32], and especially for catalytic reactions as diverse as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) [32,33], hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) [34,35], and methanol/ethanol oxidation [9,36,37,38] This is because Ni is a homologous element with Pt over a range of mass ratios and shows high catalytic activity and good stability for various reactions [31,32,39]. We characterized the deposited Ni-Pt alloy thin films by using various analytical techniques
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