Hydrogen Induced Superhydrophilicity in an Amorphous CrFeNi-Based Multi-Principal Element Alloy Thin Film
Athanasios A. Papaderakis, Eirini-Maria Paschalidou, León Zendejas Medina, Ezgi Hatipoglu, Aparna Saksena, Baptiste Gault, Birhan Sefer, David Malmström, Pouya Hosseini, Oliver Trost, Adrianna Lozinko, Mohini Ramkaran, Anne Juel, Kristina Tschulik, Robert A.W. Dryfe
In this paper, we demonstrate how electrochemically driven hydrogen adsorption/absorption induces, irreversibly, a superhydrophilic state in an amorphous CrFeNi-based multi-principal element alloy thin film with close to equimolar composition, i.e., in the class of medium/high entropy alloys. The absorption of hydrogen into the matrix of the amorphous film results in compositional changes at the outermost surface layers that strongly influence surface energetics leading to the transition from a mildly hydrophilic state to an ultra-high substrate surface energy regime.