Low-Pressure Deuterium Storage on Palladium-Coated Titanium Nanofilms: A Versatile Model System for Tritium-Based...

Deuterium (D₂(g)) storage of Pd-coated Ti ultra-thin films at relatively low pressures is fine-tuned by systematically controlling the thicknesses of the catalytic Pd overlayer, underlying Ti ultra-thin film domain, D₂(g) pressure (P_D2), duration of D₂(g) exposure, and the thin film temperature. Structural properties of the Ti/Pd nanofilms are investigated via XRD, XPS, AFM, SEM, and TPD to explore new structure-functionality relationships. Ti/Pd thin film systems are deuterated to obtain a D/Ti ratio of up to 1.53 forming crystallographically ordered titanium deuteride (TiD) phases with strong Ti-D electronic interactions and high thermal stability, where >90% of the stored D resides in the Ti component, thermally desorbing at >460 °C in the form of D₂(g). Electronic interaction between Pd and D is weak, yielding metallic (Pd⁰) states where D storage occurs mostly on the Pd film surface (i.e., without forming ordered bulk PdD phases) leading to the thermal desorption of primarily DOH(g) and D₂O(g) at <265 °C. D-storage typically increases with increasing Ti film thickness, P_D2, T, and t, whereas D-storage is found to be sensitive to the thickness and the surface roughness of the catalytic Pd overlayer. Optimum Pd film thickness is determined to be 10 nm providing sufficient surface coverage for adequate wetting of the underlying Ti film while offering an appropriate number of surface defects (roughness) for D immobilization and a relatively short transport pathlength for efficient D diffusion from Pd to Ti. The currently used D-storage optimization strategy is also extended to a realistic tritium-based betavoltaic battery (BVB) device producing promising β-particle emission yields of 164 mCi/cm², an open circuit potential (V_OC) of 2.04 V, and a short circuit current (I_SC) of 7.2 nA.