(Invited) Development of Sustainable Electrocatalysts for Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers

Abstract

The electrocatalytic hydrogen oxidation (HOR) and evolution (HER) reactions under alkaline conditions are kinetically slow processes even when Pt group metals are employed. This presentation discusses our strategies to improve the activity of non platinum catalysts. For example, to improve the alkaline HOR activity of transition metal nanoparticles we look at engineering strong interactions with metal oxides incorporated with carbon-based catalyst supports.(1,2) Another strategy involves utilizing novel carbon materials such as onion like carbon (OLC). We have shown that the combination of CeO2 and OLC in Pd–CeO2/OLC induces surface defects and modifies the electronic structure of the Pd-OLC interface, significantly improving electrical conductivity due to enhanced charge redistribution. Such results were corroborated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.(3) Using this strategy, peak power densities of up to 2 W cm-2 have been achieved when Pd-CeO2 is incorporated in AEMFCs.(4) Regarding the alkaline HER, mixed phase Ni-Mo and MoO3-x materials are known to have enhanced alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. Here we describe the optimization of the preparation of an active HER catalyst composed of MoO2 surface nanorod arrays on nickel foam (see Figure). Large circular cathode electrodes (Area 80 cm2) were prepared and tested in a three cell stack AEM electrolyser.(5) M. V. Pagliaro, C. L. Wen, B. Sa, B. Y. Liu, M. Bellini, F. Bartoli, S. Sahoo, R. K. Singh, S. P. Alpay, H. A. Miller and D. R. Dekel, ACS Catal., 10894 (2022).M. V. Pagliaro, M. Bellini, F. Bartoli, J. Filippi, A. Marchionni, C. Castello, W. Oberhauser, L. Poggini, B. Cortigiani, L. Capozzoli, A. Lavacchi, H. A. Miller and F. Vizza, Inorg. Chim. Acta, 543 (2022).J. Ogada, A. K. Ipadeola, P. V. Mwonga, A. B. Haruna, F. Nichols, S. W. Chen, H. A. Miller, M. V. Pagliaro, F. Vizza, J. R. Varcoe, D. M. Meira, D. M. Wamwangi and K. I. Ozoemena, ACS Catal., 12, 10938 (2022).H. A. Miller, M. Bellini, D. R. Dekel, and F. Vizza, Electrochemistry Communications, 135, 107219 (2022).F. Bartoli, L. Capozzoli, T. Peruzzolo, M. Marelli, C. Evangelisti, k. Bouzek, J. Hnat, G. Serrano, L. Poggini, K. Stojanovski, V. Briega-Martos, S. Cherevko, H. A. Miller and F. Vizza, J. Mater. Chem. A, 11, 5789 (2023). Figure 1