Environmental concerns and energy crisis lead to increase of global interest in the development of "hydrogen economy". The increased demand for hydrogen consumption has led to a revival in methods for separation and purification of hydrogen from gas mixtures. The interaction between Pd and hydrogen has been studied extensively and applied widely in hydrogenation catalysts of chemical engineering because palladium absorbs and adsorbs hydrogen easily. Pd membranes having good chemical compatibility and hydrogen selectivity are widely used for hydrogen separation and purification. So far, electroless, electrochemical and sputtering depositions are used for the fabrication of Pd membranes. Most efforts have been focused on reduction of the membrane thickness in order to maximize hydrogen permeability and reduce the membrane cost. However, the fabrication of an ultra-thin and pin-hole free membrane is a challenging task. Based on the observation of microstructure of Pd deposited on the rough stainless steel surface using electroless process, we find that Pd membrane is made of nanoparticles and the thickness of an ultra-thin membrane is directly dependent on the diameter of nanoparticles. The diameter of Pd nanoparticles can be effectively controlled by the concentration of PdCl₂ in the plating bath. The higher concentration of PdCl₂ in the plating bath will result in a smaller size of Pd particles deposited on the substrate. The smaller the diameter of Pd nanoparticles is, the thinner the dense Pd membrane is built. Hydrogen permeation tested result from the ultra-thin Pd membrane having the thickness of 400 nm demonstrates that the ultra-thin membrane is solid and it can be used at the temperature of 550^oC and hydrogen pressure difference of 50 psi. These results will allow optimizing the design of an ultra-thin Pd membrane for hydrogen extraction.

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