ELECTROCATALYSIS OF THE HYDROGEN EVOLUTION REACTION ON CoRe, CoWRe SUPERALLOYS DEPOSITED FROM CITRATE ELECTROLYTE

Abstract

The reaction of electroreduction of hydrogen ions on binary CoRe and ternary CoWRe alloys electrodeposited from a citrate electrolyte with different amount of potassium perrhenate (0.01 and 0.05 mol·L-1) depending on the deposition current density (5–40 A·cm-2) has been investigated by the method of stationary voltammetry. The kinetic parameters of the reaction have been calculated, and it is shown that the use of ternary alloys allows one to increase the value of exchange current density by almost an order of magnitude and significantly reduce the overvoltage of hydrogen reduction in comparison with cobalt. It is shown that the best electrocatalysts for the reduction of hydrogen in alkaline solution can be ternary CoWRe alloys with a rhenium content of 15–20 at. %.