Investigation on the electrochemical catalysis properties of Ni-decorated nanoporous copper formed by hybrid laser deposition

Nano-alloys or nano-structure often display novel physical, and chemical properties. It is of great scientific and engineering meanings to deposit micronano structure on macro-component surface to locally achieve nano-properties for potential applications. Nanoporous copper coatings(NPCC) with pnanopore size ranging from 30 to 50nm have been fabricated in our preliminary work by laser depositing Cu-Mn alloy coatings on carbon steel and subsequently dealloying process in hydrochloric acid solution. The porosity and specific surface area reaches as high as 70% and 65.3 m2/g respectively. The as-formed NPCC was then further processed by electroless plating a thin layer of Ni. This paper focus on the structure evolution of nanoporous Cu-Ni composite coatings, Ni-decorated nanoporous copper coatings(Ni-NPCC), with an average pore size of 30nm, porosity of 50% and specific surface area of 40m²/g. It is indicated that both NPCC and Ni-NPCC shows catalysis properties as hydrogen storage electrode. Their catalysis properties change with the Ni plating time. Ni-NPCC with 20 minutes Ni plating have the best catalysis properties, with an optimized oxidation peak current density up to about 60 mA/cm².