(Invited) Rational Design of Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage

Abstract

PEM fuel cells are expected to play dominant role in future clean energy solutions for various applications. Developing highly efficient low-Pt and Pt-free catalysts are the key solutions for the wide-spread commercialization of PEMFCs. Through green chemistry and/or ALD techniques, we fabricated various novel Pt nanostructures, including nanowires, nanotubes, and single atoms. Compared to the conventional Pt nanoparticle/C commercial catalyst, these novel Pt nanostructures exhibited much enhanced activity (up to 10 times) and stability (up to 6 times) for fuel cells [1-7]. On the other hand, we recently developed novel Fe/N/C catalysts which exhibited higher activity in alkaline media and equivalent activity in acidic electrolyte compared to Pt. [8] Moreover, we systematically studied the decay mechanism of the MOF-based Fe/N/C catalyst, which is of significant important to improve the durability of Fe/N/C catalysts [9]. Both lithium-ion (LIB) and sodium-ion batteries (SIB) are promising technologies for energy storage. We developed a facile, inexpensive and scalable wet-chemical strategy to fabricate the Fe3O4/graphene composites and porous carbon spheres. The nanocomposite shows dramatically enhanced electrochemical properties including excellent reversible capacity, cyclability and rate performance in LIBs and SIBs [10,11].