The production of hydrogen through water electrolysis is a major limiting step in the implementation of hydrogen-based energy storage. Currently used materials for catalyzing the hydrogen evolution reaction require large overpotentials, reducing the efficiency of hydrogen production. Metallic glasses are of interest for use in electrocatalysis due to their high activity and diversity of catalytic sites. However, only a small selection of metallic glass compositions can be manufactured into bulk parts, necessitating the use of metallic glass coatings. In this research, a Zr-based metallic glass was produced as a thin film using sputtering deposition. Combinatorial co-sputtering was used to produce a library of quaternary Zr-based metallic glasses to enable high-throughput characterization of the anode material and electrochemical testing. Metallic glass surfaces were characterized prior to and after electrochemical testing using a range of techniques to explore the physiochemical properties of the catalytic surface. Nano-structured metallic glass coatings are a promising material for catalysis of the hydrogen evolution reaction.This work is funded by ARPA-e under DE-AR0001697. JRH is funded as a fellow under the NSF GRFP.
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