New porous Fe64/Ni36 and Ni70/Cu30 electrodes for hydrogen evolution — Production and properties

The presented paper discusses a new method used to manufacture porous sintered Fe64/Ni36 and Ni70/Cu30 alloys electrodes by thermal–chemical processing of thin powder layers.The kinetics of oxidation of the alloy powder beds in air at temperature range 400–800 °C are presented. The process of reduction of porous oxidized precursor in hydrogen atmosphere at temperature range 500–800 °C was also studied. The optimal conditions of the fabrication of porous electrode with the highest values for specific surface area and for open porosity were assumed. The morphology of the porous surface of oxidized precursors and the structure of porous metallic electrodes as well were examined by SEM method. The chemical composition was analyzed according to SEM/EDX and XRD methods. The specific surface of the electrodes was measured by standard BET method. The electrochemical properties of porous alloys electrode (obtained under different conditions of oxidation) were examined by potentiodynamic method.