Advanced Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells

The primary barrier to broad applications of electrocatalyst for electrolyzers, fuel cells and metal-air batteries is lack of fundamental understanding of processes that are taking place at solid-liquid interfaces. Moreover, the cost, performance and durability of the current state of the art electrocatalysts are still not at level that would warrant commercialization of these technologies. Major catalytic improvements have been accomplished for the oxygen reduction reaction in case of Pt bi/multi-metallic alloys.  It has been demonstrated that tuning of surface properties such as surface and subsurface composition, surface structure, and hence, electronic properties are critical aspects toward novel materials with unique functional properties.  For instance, an increase in activity of almost two orders of magnitude compared to conventional Pt/C catalyst was reported for single crystalline Pt-Skin surfaces.  This finding inspired subsequent nanoscale catalyst design aiming to synthesize more active, but also more durable catalysts. A synergy between well-defined extended surfaces and practical electrocatalysts remains to be a potent approach in development of systems with advanced catalytic properties and it will be thoroughly discussed in this presentation. 

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