Cost and durability are two major barriers preventing the large-scale production and commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Electrocatalysts are the main contributors to limited PEMFC performance, high cost, and unsatisfactory durability.

A carbon sphere supported PtCo catalyst

Currently, only expensive Pt or Pt-based catalysts are practical for driving the electrochemical reactions in a PEMFC environment.

Catalyst stability is one of the major limitations for PEMFC durability. Improving stability is an important step in achieving commercially viable PEMFCs. As a result, the development of high-performance, cost-effective and durable electrocatalysts represent a key set of priorities in PEMFC research and development (R&D).

Core Competencies

• Oxygen Reduction Reaction
• Areas of Focus
• Catalyst Development

ORR Catalyst Development

In a PEMFC, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode is a kinetically slow process which dominates the overall performance of a fuel cell. Consequently, developing active catalysts for the ORR is the focus of PEMFC electrocatalysis. In general, two major approaches are underway to address issues of slow ORR activity, high cost, and insufficient stability:

• Reducing Pt loading in PEMFC catalyst layers while maintaining high performance.
• Exploring non-noble metal catalysts that cost much less but still demonstrate necessary performance under PEMFC conditions.

Areas of Focus

At NRC-IFCI, the catalysis team works on several projects which address PEMFC catalyst development. This work mainly focuses on the development of:

A flower-shaped catalyst

• Non-noble metal catalysts with low cost and applicable performance, through self-supporting and new ligand strategies to seek catalyst breakthroughs for the sustainable development of PEM fuel cell technologies;
• Novel, conductive and corrosion-resistant non-carbon catalyst supports and their corresponding supported catalysts by screening ceramic materials (such as carbide, nitride, phosphide, oxide), to address the durability of PEM fuel cell catalysts;
• Cost-effective and high-performance Pt alloy catalysts through strategies involving new carbon supports, and core-shell structure alloys that match the needs of the fuel cell industry for near-term PEMFC commercialization;
• Computational chemistry methods to theoretically model catalyst/catalyst support activity and stability for new catalyst/catalyst support design and down-selection.

Catalysis Development

Since 2004, the catalysis team has developed dozens of new catalysts including transition metal macrocycles (Co-TMPP/C, Co-PPY/C, Fe-N4/C, Mo-N/C, Fe-TPTZ ), chalcogenides (Ir-Se/C, Ir-Co/C, W-Co-Se/C) noble metal alloys (PtBi2, hollow Pt-Co, Pt-Ru-Ir-Sn/C, Pd-Co/C), as well as new structure carbon (mesoporous carbon sphere) supported Pt and Pt-Co alloy catalysts.

A Porous Carbon Sphere

This 20 researcher catalysis team has also developed a number of unique capabilities, including several chemical and physical synthesis technologies such as a microwave-polyol method and a template-assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method for innovative catalyst and catalyst support synthesis. The team has also established a range of sophisticated instrument methods (XRD, XPS, TEM, SEM, etc.) and electrochemical measurement systems (CV, RDE/RRDE, AC impedance and CO-stripping voltametry techniques) for catalyst morphology/structure and activity characterization.

For information, please refer to our Porous Carbon Sphere Fabricated by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis Fact Sheet (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).