Studies on electrodeposition of Fe-W alloys for fuel cell applications

Electrodeposition of Fe-W alloy has been carried out from acidic triammonium citrate (TAC) complex bath solution. The deposit is characterised by XRD, SEM, EDAX, XPS and polarization techniques. The alloys are amorphous and become partially crystalline on heat treatment. The composition (Fe/W) of elements in the coating and their oxidation states vary from the surface to the bulk of the material. The coatings exhibit as novel electrode material with low over voltage and good corrosion resistance for anodic oxidation of methanol in H2SO4 medium. The anodic peak current, a measure of oxidation reaction rate is considerably high on Fe-W alloy when compared to pure Fe and also the relative surface area of Fe by alloying it with W found to increase by 1200-fold.