Electrochemical behavior of Ni–Cu foams fabricated by dynamic hydrogen bubble template electrodeposition used for energy applications
Y. Reda, R. Abdel-Karim, K.M. Zohdy, S. M. El‐Raghy
Abstract
This work focuses on studying the effect of bath chemical composition, applied current and deposition time on the morphology, composition and corrosion characterization of the deposited Ni–Cu nano metallic foams (NMFs) using Dynamic Hydrogen Bubble Template (DHBT) technique. The Ni content of the deposited layer was ranged from 50 to 57% and the copper content ranged from 8 to 21%. The corrosion characterization of these NMFs was evaluated in 1 M acidic methanol solution by potentiodynamic polarization tests, cyclic voltammetry, and EIS. At high current density, typical dendritic morphology was developed. From the potentiodynamic test, the lowest corrosion rate was 0.089 mpy for layer deposited at 0.6 A/cm2 for 30 sec. Increasing both the applied current density and the time of deposition lead to increasing of the forward peak intensity and total charge measured by cyclic voltammetry showing a remarkable effect on the electrochemical activity of the films. From the EIS test, it was observed that the polarization resistance (Rpo) decreased as well as the applied electrodeposition time increased. The highest polarization resistance was 272 O at 0.6 A/cm2 for 30 sec, reflecting the highest corrosion resistance.