Highly mobile and reactive state of hydrogen in metal oxide semiconductors at room temperature

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Abstract

Hydrogen in metal oxides usually strongly associates with a neighboring oxygen ion through an O-H bond and thus displays a high stability. Here we report a novel state of hydrogen with unusually high mobility and reactivity in metal oxides at room temperature. We show that freshly doped hydrogen in Nb 2 O 5 and WO 3 polycrystals via electrochemical hydrogenation can reduce Cu 2+ ions into Cu 0 if the polycrystals are immersed in a CuSO 4 solution, while this would not happen if the hydrogenated polycrystals have been placed in air for several hours before the immersion. Time-dependent studies of electrochemically hydrogenated rutile single crystals reveal two distinct states of hydrogen: one as protons covalently bonded to oxygen ions, while the other one is highly unstable with a lifetime of just a few hours. Observation of this mobile and reactive state of hydrogen will provide new insight into numerous moderate and low temperature interactions between metal oxides and hydrogen.

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Chen, W. P., He, K. F., Wang, Y., Chan, H. L. W., & Yan, Z. (2013). Highly mobile and reactive state of hydrogen in metal oxide semiconductors at room temperature. Scientific Reports, 3. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep03149

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