Hydrogen binding in vacancy clusters in platinum

Abstract

The binding of hydrogen in different vacancy complexes in platinum metal was investigated with atomic-scale sensitivity using perturbed angular correlations of gamma rays (PAC). Hydrogen was introduced by cathodic charging. Detrapping was monitored microscopically during desorption at 294 K by changes in site fractions of hydrogen-decorated and undecorated complexes. Analysis of desorption includes effects of retrapping of hydrogen at other sites. Assuming a trap concentration of 10⁻³, binding enthalpies of 0.23(2), 0.28(1), 0.24(1) and >0.20 eV are obtained for hydrogen atoms in 1V to 4V complexes, respectively. The small differences between the binding enthalpies demonstrate that hydrogen binding is insensitive to the detailed geometrical structure of small vacancy complexes. However, the magnitudes found here are a factor of two smaller than in the literature.