(Invited) Combinatorial Study of Fundamental Electrocatalyst Performance - the Scanning Flow Cell Coupled to Online Analytics

Continuous electrochemical flow reactors for efficient conversion of electrical energy into chemicals and vice versa, i.e. fuel cells and electrolyzers, become increasingly important for our energy sustainability and environmental concerns. One bottleneck for the commercialization are the electrocatalyst materials, which constitute the core of electrochemical energy conversion devices. While the optimization of kinetic activity of catalysts and efficiency of whole cells has been widely explored, the highly important stability of the materials and selectivity for reactions has often been neglected. In this presentation I will demonstrate how fundamental investigations of electrocatalyst activity, stability and selectivity can be performed online and in parallel, and what can be learned from these studies for large scale applications. The focus will be on the recent methodological developments from our group, in particular the scanning flow cell (SFC) coupled to online analytics, which also allows for combinatorial analysis. The potential of this approach will be demonstrated by results on the essential oxygen electrochemistry on noble metal catalysts as used in low-temperature fuel cells and electrolysers. 

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