Intermetallic Passivation Imparts Corrosion Resistance and Enables Intrinsic Electrocatalytic Activity Promotion.
- 1Robert V. Waltemeyer Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania16802, United States.
Abstract
Electrocatalytic technologies are limited by reliance on precious metal catalysts with low activity. Intermetallics can alleviate these challenges but have limited efficacy due to corrosion susceptibility. Herein, we demonstrate that electrochemical cycling produces a near-surface Pd + Ge intermetallic with corrosion resistance far exceeding that of bulk PdGe. Corrosion resistance is enhanced by the presence of more cationic Ge at the surface, which acts as an intermetallic passivation layer. This enhanced corrosion resistance enables the material to be utilized as an electrocatalyst under conditions where bulk PdGe rapidly corrodes. The material exhibits exceptional activity for O2 reduction, which is enhanced by roughly an order of magnitude compared to Pd on a per Pd surface atom basis. Density functional theory suggests that activity promotion occurs via electronic and bifunctional effects. This work demonstrates that electrochemical near-surface alloying can produce remarkably corrosion resistant materials with superior electrocatalytic activity despite a reduced precious metals content.
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BibTeX
@article{matalkeh2026intermetallic,
title = {{Intermetallic Passivation Imparts Corrosion Resistance and Enables Intrinsic Electrocatalytic Activity Promotion.}},
author = {Majd M Matalkeh and Jin Li and Andrew J Wong and Alan Dang and Bryan D Vogt and Michael J Janik and Ezra L Clark},
journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1021/jacs.6c09853},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42913566},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Intermetallic Passivation Imparts Corrosion Resistance and Enables Intrinsic Electrocatalytic Activity Promotion.
AU - Majd M Matalkeh
AU - Jin Li
AU - Andrew J Wong
AU - Alan Dang
AU - Bryan D Vogt
AU - Michael J Janik
AU - Ezra L Clark
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
DO - 10.1021/jacs.6c09853
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42913566
AB - Electrocatalytic technologies are limited by reliance on precious metal catalysts with low activity. Intermetallics can alleviate these challenges but have limited efficacy due to corrosion susceptibility. Herein, we demonstrate that electrochemical cycling produces a near-surface Pd + Ge intermetallic with corrosion resistance far exceeding that of bulk PdGe. Corrosion resistance is enhanced by the presence of more cationic Ge at the surface, which acts as an intermetallic passivation layer. This enhanced corrosion resistance enables the material to be utilized as an electrocatalyst under conditions where bulk PdGe rapidly corrodes. The material exhibits exceptional activity for O2 reduction, which is enhanced by roughly an order of magnitude compared to Pd on a per Pd surface atom basis. Density functional theory suggests that activity promotion occurs via electronic and bifunctional effects. This work demonstrates that electrochemical near-surface alloying can produce remarkably corrosion resistant materials with superior electrocatalytic activity despite a reduced precious metals content.
SN - 0002-7863
SN - 1520-5126
ER -