THE CRYSTALLIZATION OF AMORPHOUS FE60CO20SI10B10 AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ELECTROCATALYTIC ACTIVITY FOR H-2 EVOLUTION

The amorphous alloy Fe60Co2 0Si10B10 has been shown to display a high electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution in 30 wt. % KOH at 70 °C. We present, in this paper, a structural study of the crystallization process and an attempt to correlate the observed changes to the electrocatalytic behavior. The results for crystalline samples of the same average composition obtained from the melt at a lower cooling rate are also presented. Our results show that the amorphous structure is the best suited for the production of hydrogen and that the changes observed can be related in some part to the different processes of surface oxidation.