Application of ion implantation to the study of electrocatalysis

The intent of the research described herein was to demonstrate the value of nonequilibrium surface-modification techniques (ion implantation, ion-beam mixing, etc.) for the generation and systematic study of electrocatalytically active surfaces. For this purpose, a detailed study was made of the electrocatalysis of chlorine evolution (and, to a lesser extent, oxygen evolution) at Ru-implanted titanium electrodes in aqueous media. Ru-implanted titanium near-surface alloys were generated by ion implantation of /sup 102/Ru ions into zone-refined titanium, and characterized (Ru concentration/depth profiles) by Rutherford backscattering. A judicious selection of multiple beam energies (40, 70, and 120 keV) and fluences (number of ions implanted per cm/sup 2/ of surface) at each energy enabled the generation of near-Gaussian profiles extending over a depth of approximately 100 nm and having a rather broad Ru concentration peak located at 20-40 nm from the surface. The peak Ru concentrations ranged from 1.94 x 10/sup 21/ to 1.77 x 10/sup 22/ atoms cm/sup -3/