The influence of electronic structure on hydrogen absorption in palladium alloys

The influence of the electronic structure and the lattice constant on hydrogen absorption in bulk Pd3M1 (M = Cd, Ag, Au, Pd, Cu, Ni, Pt, Pb, Sn, Fe, Rh, Ru) has been studied by density-functional calculations. We have assumed face-centred cubic structure for all the alloys, and hydrogen has been placed in the octahedral site surrounded by six Pd atoms. We have calculated the absorption energy of hydrogen in the alloys, and found that the influence of the electronic structure is much more important than that of the lattice constant. The results demonstrate that Miedema’s empirical rule is also satisfied in this system, i.e., the higher the binding energy of the host alloy, the less stable the hydride. We have also calculated the detailed electronic structures of the alloys and their hydrides. We found that more stable hydrogen absorption is correlated with the hydrogen 1s electrons, palladium s electrons, palladium s-like electrons and the palladium d electrons moving higher in energy towards the Fermi level. The two latter relations have previously been described for bulk systems and surfaces respectively, while this study is apparently the first to point out the correlation between the position of the hydrogen band and the stability of the hydride, i.e., the deeper the hydrogen band, the less stable the hydride. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version.)