CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Palladium, has an unique property between the noble metals, that is the higher capacity to absorb onto the surface, and within its network, the hydrogen, resulting the Pd of crucial importance to many industrial processes such as catalysis, fuel cell, hydrogen storage and metal embrittlement. Since the activity of a noble metal deposited depends strongly on the surface structure, this work is aimed to study the Pd° nucleation and growth mechanisms onto different substrates such as HOPG, and commercial titanium. Thus , we used the chronoamperometry, (modifying 10 to 300 sec and - 0,1V to + 0,1V) in the nanostructures formation. The resulting material was characterized electrochemically and morphologically using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). In agreement with the results, the existing mechanism onto both substrates, was (3D) Pd ° instantaneous nucleation and growth controlled by diffusion, with a development of nanoparticles with defined morphology and narrow size distributions, which are potentially useful as electrocatalysts.