Quantum Chemistry for Surface Segregation in Metal Alloys, Final Technical Report, 9/1/2005-8/31/2006.

摘要

Metal alloys are vital materials for the fabrication of high-flux, high-selectivity hydrogen separation membranes. A phenomenon that occurs in alloys that does not arise in pure metals is surface segregation, where the composition of the surface differs from the bulk composition. Little is known about the strength of surface segregation in the alloys usually considered for hydrogen membranes. Despite this lack of knowledge, surface segregation may play a decisive role in the ability of appropriately chosen alloys to be resistant to chemical poisoning, since membrane poisoning is controlled by surface chemistry. The aim of this Phase I project is to develop quantum chemistry approaches to assess surface segregation in a prototypical hydrogen membrane alloy, fcc Pd(sub 75)Cu(sub 25). This alloy is known experimentally to have favorable surface properties as a poison resistant H(sub 2) purification membrane (Kamakoti et al., Science 307 (2005) 569-573), but previous efforts at modeling surfaces of this alloy have ignored the possible role of surface segregation (Alfonso et al., Surf. Sci. 546 (2003) 12-26).