Palladium plasma-sputtering

In the first experiments, palladium copper alloy was deposited by magnetron sputtering from a target with the composition Pd 60%/Cu 40% (by weight) in an argon plasma, on to flexible film of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, trade name Solublon ) and on to polystyrene. The alloy films were from 0.5 to 3 microns thick and had a minimal intrinsic stress. This was evident from the fact that the films had no tendency to curl up. 

Pt and Pd nitride nanoparticles have been synthesized by sputtering of the parent metal with N2 plasma [85]. Traditional solid-state synthesis techniques are often unsuccessful in creating Pt/Pd nitrides due to the low M-N bond strength. Physical vapor deposition processes such as sputtering can, however, often produce materials that are not expected thermodynamically due to the nature of the reaction. In this study, platinum and palladium thin films and nanoparticles were... 

Research on Nafion modification has recently been focused on minimizing the methanol crossover, which is particularly serious in the DMFC system. Some of the modifications made to the Nafion membrane are by using surface modification techniques, which include plasma deposition, palladium sputtering, and polymer coating and grafting. 

Choi et al. (2001) applied plasma etching and plasma palladium sputtering to Nafion membranes. This treatment depressed methanol crossover by about 35%. The current-voltage curves for fuel cells with treated membrane were better than those for fuel cells with an untreated membrane (data concerning the conductivity change were not reported in the paper). 

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