Metal-coated reactive powders and methods for making the same

A method of forming an immersion deposit on a reactive metal, wherein said immersion deposit comprises one or more noble metals, said method comprising:

• (a) obtaining a reactive metal, an ionic liquid, and one or more noble metal salts containing one or more noble metals, wherein said one or more noble metal salts are in a form of a solid, a liquid, or a gas;
• (b) combining said reactive metal, said ionic liquid, and said one or more noble metal salts to form a reaction mixture, wherein at least one of said one or more noble metals has a higher standard reduction potential than said reactive metal;
• (c) selecting effective reaction conditions to deposit said at least one of said one or more noble metals on said reactive metal by a surface-displacement reaction without hydrogen evolution, thereby generating said immersion deposit on said reactive metal;
• and
• (d) removing said ionic liquid from said immersion deposit,
• wherein at least one of said one or more noble metals is surface-reacted with hydrogen during step (c) to form a noble-metal hydride contained in said immersion deposit.