The main scientific objectives of SMARTELECTRODES project were focused on the elaboration of advanced systems, which play significant roles in several important electrochemical/electrophysical applications such as catalysis/electrocatalysis, sensoring, thermoelectrics, electrowinning, electrochemical machining and electrospark alloying. Namely, new metallic and semiconductor materials were produced based on:
I. chalcogenides;
II. iron group metals;
III. “technological” electrodes
New materials and smart applications were elaborated based on:
- Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) belongs to a class of materials called transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and it acts as an excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst in acidic media. It accelerates the Volmer reaction in the hydrogen evolution process, because H+-ions are readily adsorbed onto the active sites of MoS2. Therefore, in order to create efficient catalytic electrodes, the catalyst has to be dispersed on a large surface area, which was achieved in our project (Fig. 1).
- Electrochemical assembly of superlattice structures of (Bi2)m(Bi2Te3)n series composed of bismuth telluride quintuples and bismuth biatomic layers with variable and controlled ratio of the both components was developed (Fig. 2)
- Fenton reaction is a process that uses iron and hydrogen peroxide to degrade organic pollutants in water, including the azo dye methyl orange. In this process, the iron acts as a catalyst to increase the reactivity of hydrogen peroxide, breaking down the methyl orange into simpler, less harmful compounds. The effectiveness of the Fenton reaction was improved through the use of iron-copper (Fe/Cu) catalysts, which increase the surface area available for reaction and increase the rate of degradation (Fig. 3).
- Fe-Ga alloys have become a promising material for micro- and nanofabrication technologies due to their unique combination of magnetic and mechanical properties, including high magnetostriction. The ability to change dimensions in response to external magnetic fields makes Fe-Ga alloys especially valuable. The synthesized new porous Fe-Ga films offer potential for the development of strain-engineered nanomaterials such as energy transducers or magnetoelectric composites (Fig. 4).
