Platinum Hydride Formation during Cathodic Corrosion in Aqueous Solutions

Published

January 22, 2025

Author(s)

Thomas Hersbach, Angel T. Garcia-Esparza, Selwyn Hanselman, Thijs Hoogenboom, Ian McCrum, Dimitra Anastasiadou, Jeremey Feaster, Thomas Jaramillo, John Vinson, Thomas Kroll, Amanda Garcia, Petr Krtil, Dimosthenis Sokaras, Marc Koper

Abstract

Cathodic corrosion is an electrochemical phenomenon that dramatically etches metals under commonly used electrocatalytic conditions. Though cathodic corrosion is thought to occur by forming a metal-containing anion, such an ion has not yet been observed. Aiming to resolve this long-standing uncertainty, the present work provides such evidence through X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Specifically, high-energy-resolution X-ray absorption near edge structure (HERFD-XANES) experiments are used to characterize platinum nanoparticles during cathodic corrosion in 10 M NaOH. These experiments detect minute chemical changes in the Pt sample during corrosion. By quantifying these changes and comparing them to high-fidelity simulated X-ray absorption spectra, this work supports the existence of hydride-like platinum during cathodic corrosion. Notably, these results provide a direct observation of this reaction intermediate under conditions where they are highly unstable, and where hydrogen bubble formation would interfere with most spectroscopy methods. As such, this work markedly advances the understanding of cathodic corrosion.

Citation

Nature Materials

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02080-y

Local Download

Keywords

Corrosion, XAS

Citation

Hersbach, T. , Garcia-Esparza, A. , Hanselman, S. , Hoogenboom, T. , McCrum, I. , Anastasiadou, D. , Feaster, J. , Jaramillo, T. , Vinson, J. , Kroll, T. , Garcia, A. , Krtil, P. , Sokaras, D. and Koper, M. (2025), Platinum Hydride Formation during Cathodic Corrosion in Aqueous Solutions, Nature Materials, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-02080-y, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=936719 (Accessed October 23, 2025)