Nanoscale Design and Engineering of Electro-catalysts in Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer Energy Conversion

Nanoscale Design and Engineering of Electro-catalysts in Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer Energy Conversion PDF Author: Weichuan Xu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Electrocatalysis as an emerging clean energy strategy provides promising future application compared to conventional power solutions. However, the barriers to wide adoption remain challenging, such as catalyst price, storage weight, durability in extreme environment, fuel safety issues and its availability to the public. Recent advances in nanomaterial and nanotechnology enables rational design and synthesis of new catalysts with enhanced performance for heterogeneous electrocatalysis. Herein we propose the Nanoscale Design and Engineering of Electro-catalysts in Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer Energy Conversion. This dissertation provides some successful examples of electrode catalyst design and fabrication for boosting electrocatalysis in fuel cell and electrolyzer. Special emphasis is put on theories, synthesis strategies, performance boost to achieve the goal of enhancing catalyst activity whiling reducing materials cost; identifying durability issues and giving solutions; realizing low total over potential in bifunctional electrocatalysis and predicting catalyst performance from simulation to find out ideal composition. The engineered nanomaterials in this dissertation mainly take advantages of (1) optimization of nanoparticle size by novel support (Nb doped TiO2) or synthesis method (polymer-assisted chemical solution) to increase electrochemical active surface area for enhanced charge transfer and catalysis activity (Chapter 2, 3, and 4), (2) synergistic effect from support material (TiO2 for Pd, carbon materials for perovskite oxide) to improve nanoparticle deposition and exposure during reactions (Chapter 2, 3, and 4), (3) tunable electronic structure (A-site deficiency, A-site excess, and partially substitution of B-site transition metal cations) on cost-effective perovskite catalyst to replace noble metal (Pt, IrO2) for bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysis in unitized fuel cells (Chapter 3 and 4), and (4) activity description from atomic level to understand electrocatalysis mechanism and make prediction for new catalysts (Chapter 4 and 5). Pd on Nb-TiO2-C supports has increased reaction intensity, selectivity without sacrifice of durability. A-site nonstoichiometry and B-site doping successfully enhances oxygen bifunctionality of cost-effective perovskite catalysts; First-principle study suggests new Pd-Cu composition to achieve a balance between reaction activity and expense.

Nanoscale Design and Engineering of Electro-catalysts in Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer Energy Conversion

Nanoscale Design and Engineering of Electro-catalysts in Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer Energy Conversion PDF Author: Weichuan Xu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Electrocatalysis as an emerging clean energy strategy provides promising future application compared to conventional power solutions. However, the barriers to wide adoption remain challenging, such as catalyst price, storage weight, durability in extreme environment, fuel safety issues and its availability to the public. Recent advances in nanomaterial and nanotechnology enables rational design and synthesis of new catalysts with enhanced performance for heterogeneous electrocatalysis. Herein we propose the Nanoscale Design and Engineering of Electro-catalysts in Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer Energy Conversion. This dissertation provides some successful examples of electrode catalyst design and fabrication for boosting electrocatalysis in fuel cell and electrolyzer. Special emphasis is put on theories, synthesis strategies, performance boost to achieve the goal of enhancing catalyst activity whiling reducing materials cost; identifying durability issues and giving solutions; realizing low total over potential in bifunctional electrocatalysis and predicting catalyst performance from simulation to find out ideal composition. The engineered nanomaterials in this dissertation mainly take advantages of (1) optimization of nanoparticle size by novel support (Nb doped TiO2) or synthesis method (polymer-assisted chemical solution) to increase electrochemical active surface area for enhanced charge transfer and catalysis activity (Chapter 2, 3, and 4), (2) synergistic effect from support material (TiO2 for Pd, carbon materials for perovskite oxide) to improve nanoparticle deposition and exposure during reactions (Chapter 2, 3, and 4), (3) tunable electronic structure (A-site deficiency, A-site excess, and partially substitution of B-site transition metal cations) on cost-effective perovskite catalyst to replace noble metal (Pt, IrO2) for bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysis in unitized fuel cells (Chapter 3 and 4), and (4) activity description from atomic level to understand electrocatalysis mechanism and make prediction for new catalysts (Chapter 4 and 5). Pd on Nb-TiO2-C supports has increased reaction intensity, selectivity without sacrifice of durability. A-site nonstoichiometry and B-site doping successfully enhances oxygen bifunctionality of cost-effective perovskite catalysts; First-principle study suggests new Pd-Cu composition to achieve a balance between reaction activity and expense.

Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell Catalysis

Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell Catalysis PDF Author: Kenneth I. Ozoemena
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319299301
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
Global experts provide an authoritative source of information on the use of electrochemical fuel cells, and in particular discuss the use of nanomaterials to enhance the performance of existing energy systems. The book covers the state of the art in the design, preparation, and engineering of nanoscale functional materials as effective catalysts for fuel cell chemistry, highlights recent progress in electrocatalysis at both fuel cell anode and cathode, and details perspectives and challenges in future research.

Metal Oxide-Based Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Metal-Air Batteries

Metal Oxide-Based Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Metal-Air Batteries PDF Author: Teko Napporn
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0128184973
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Metal Oxide-Based Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Metal-Air Batteries is a comprehensive book summarizing the recent overview of these new materials developed to date. The book is motivated by research that focuses on the reduction of noble metal content in catalysts to reduce the cost associated to the entire system. Metal oxides gained significant interest in heterogeneous catalysis for basic research and industrial deployment. Metal Oxide-Based Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells, Electrolyzers, and Metal-Air Batteries puts these opportunities and challenges into a broad context, discusses the recent researches and technological advances, and finally provides several pathways and guidelines that could inspire the development of ground-breaking electrochemical devices for energy production or storage. Its primary focus is how materials development is an important approach to produce electricity for key applications such as automotive and industrial. The book is appropriate for those working in academia and R&D in the disciplines of materials science, chemistry, electrochemistry, and engineering. - Includes key aspects of materials design to improve the performance of electrode materials for energy conversion and storage device applications - Reviews emerging metal oxide materials for hydrogen production, hydrogen oxidation, oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution - Discusses metal oxide electrocatalysts for water-splitting, metal-air batteries, electrolyzer, and fuel cell applications

Nanotechnology in Electrocatalysis for Energy

Nanotechnology in Electrocatalysis for Energy PDF Author: Alessandro Lavacchi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489980598
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
This book focuses on nanotechnology in electrocatalysis for energy applications. In particular the book covers nanostructured electrocatalysts for low temperature fuel cells, low temperature electrolyzers and electrochemical valorization. The function of this book is to provide an introduction to basic principles of electrocatalysis, together with a review of the main classes of materials and electrode architectures. This book will illustrate the basic ideas behind material design and provide an introductory sketch of current research focuses. The easy-to-follow three part book focuses on major formulas, concepts and philosophies. This book is ideal for professionals and researchers interested in the field of electrochemistry, renewable energy and electrocatalysis.

Nanoscale Surface Engineering for Ceramic Fuel Cells

Nanoscale Surface Engineering for Ceramic Fuel Cells PDF Author: Young Beom Kim
Publisher: Stanford University
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Ceramic fuel cell (CFC) is an all-solid-state energy conversion device and usually refers to fuel cells employing solid ceramic electrolytes. The present generation of ceramic fuel cells can be classified into two types according to the electrolytes they use: oxygen ion conducting fuel cells, or solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and proton conducting fuel cells (PCFC or PCOFC). CFCs usually have the highest operating temperature of all fuel cells at about 600~1000oC for reasonably active charge transfer reactions at the electrode-electrolyte interface and ion transport through the electrolyte. This high CFC's operating temperature has limited practical applications. The goal of my Ph.D. research is to minimize the activation losses at the electrode/electrolyte interface by nanoscale engineering to achieve decent performance of ceramic fuel cells at lower operating temperatures (300~500oC). This dissertation has three main nanoscale surface engineering approaches according to the fuel cell components: electrode structure, composite electrolyte structures with thin interlayers, and the fabrication of three-dimensional fuel cell membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs). We would call the first part of the dissertation as nanoscale electrode structure engineering for ceramic fuel cells. It describes the fabrication and investigation of morphologically stable model electrode structures with well-defined and sharp platinum/yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) interfaces to study geometric effects at triple phase boundaries (TPB), which is known as the actual electrochemical reaction site. A nanosphere lithography (NSL) technique using monodispersed silica nanoparticles is employed to deposit nonporous platinum electrodes containing close-packed arrays of circular openings through the underlying YSZ surface. These nano-structured dense Pt array cathodes exhibited better structural integrity and thermal stability at the fuel cell operating temperature of 450~500oC when compared to porous sputtered Pt electrodes. More importantly, electrochemical studies on geometrically well-defined Pt/YSZ sharp interfaces demonstrated that the cathode impedance and cell performance both scale almost linearly with aerial density of TPB length. These controlled experiments also allowed for the estimation of the area of the electrochemical reaction zone. This information can be used as a platform for designing the electrode structure to maximize the performance of ceramic fuel cells. The second part of the experiment is about electrolyte surface structure engineering by fabricating composite electrolyte structures. This study describes, both theoretically and experimentally, the role of doped ceria cathodic interlayers and their surface grain boundaries in enhancing oxygen incorporation kinetics. Quantum mechanical simulations of oxygen incorporation energetics support the experimental results and indicate a low activation energy of only 0.07eV for yttria-doped ceria (YDC), while the incorporation reaction on YSZ is activated by a significantly higher energy barrier of 0.38eV. For experiments, epitaxial and polycrystalline YDC, gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on the cathode side of 300[Mu]m-thick single crystalline (100) and 100[Mu]m-thick polycrystalline YSZ substrates, respectively. For the composite electrolyte sample with YDC interlayer, the Oxygen isotope exchange experiment was conducted employing secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) with high spatial resolution (50nm). The surface mapping result of 18O/16O shows high activity at surface grain boundary regions indicating that the grain boundary regions are electrochemically active for oxygen incorporation reaction. Fuel cell current-voltage behavior and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were carried out in the temperature range of 350oC-450oC on both single crystalline and polycrystalline interlayered cells. Results of dc and ac measurements confirm that cathodic resistances of cells with epitaxial doped-cerium oxides (GDC, YDC) layers are lower than that for the YSZ-only control cell. This is attributed to the higher surface exchange coefficient for doped-cerium oxides than for YSZ. Moreover, the role of grain boundary density at the cathode side external surface was investigated on surface-engineered electrode-membrane assemblies (MEA) having different doped-ceria surface grain sizes. MEAs having smaller surface grain size show better cell performance and correspondingly lower electrode interfacial resistance. Electrochemical measurements suggest that doped-ceria grain boundaries at the cathode side contribute to the enhancement of oxygen surface kinetics. These results provide an opportunity and a microstructure design pathway to improve performance of LT-SOFCs by surface engineering with nano-granular, catalytically superior thin doped-ceria cathodic interlayers. Thirdly, as a reaction surface engineering for SOFC, we investigated a novel method for creating a three-dimensional (3-D) fuel cell architecture to enhance fuel cell performance by increasing the area of the electrolyte membrane. The research describes the fabrication and operation of a low temperature 3-D protonically conducting ceramic fuel cell featuring a close packed and free standing crater patterned architecture achieved by nanospherical patterning (NSP) and dry etching techniques. The cell employed conformal layers of yttria-doped barium zirconate (BYZ) anhydrous electrolyte membrane (~120nm) sandwiched between thin (~70nm) sputtered porous Pt electrode layers. The fuel cell structure achieved the highest reported peak power densities up to 186 mW/cm2 at 450oC using hydrogen as fuel. To further investigate the proton conductivity of the electrolyte, which is BYZ, we studied the effect of crystalline structures on proton conductivity of BYZ thin films. The results showed that the grain boundaries impede the proton transport through the grain boundary and cause extremely high resistance for ionic transport in the film. This experimental result also can provide significant implications in designing proton conducting ceramic fuel cells. All these efforts and investigations were intended to enhance the ceramic fuel cell performance at low operating temperatures (300--500oC) by improving electrode/electrolyte interface electrochemical reactions. We expect to achieve further enhancement when we combine the approaches each other. For example, fabrication of three-dimensional fuel cells with doped-ceria interlayers and composite electrolyte structures with optimized electrode nano-structures. Investigations are on-going in our laboratory as a future work.

Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Evolution

Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Evolution PDF Author: Abhijit Ray
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1789848121
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
The book starts with a theoretical understanding of electrocatalysis in the framework of density functional theory followed by a vivid review of oxygen reduction reactions. A special emphasis has been placed on electrocatalysts for a proton-exchange membrane-based fuel cell where graphene with noble metal dispersion plays a significant role in electron transfer at thermodynamically favourable conditions. The latter part of the book deals with two 2D materials with high economic viability and process ability and MoS2 and WS2 for their prospects in water-splitting from renewable energy.

Synthesis and Electrocatalytic Properties of Structure Engineered First-row Transition Metal Derivatives

Synthesis and Electrocatalytic Properties of Structure Engineered First-row Transition Metal Derivatives PDF Author: Xiaodong Yan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electrocatalysis
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Hydrogen is a green energy carrier, producing only water when combusted, and a hydrogen economy has been considered the ideal green economy for human society. Water electrolysis can produce high-purity hydrogen on a large scale, and if the electricity used in water electrolysis is obtained from renewable energy, a sustainable energy chain can be achieved. Fuel cell technology offers a highly efficient way of converting chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through an electrochemical reaction. Fuel cells are expected to be one of the mainstream energy conversion devices for many applications such as the transportation and portable electronic systems. Hydrogen fuel cell technology is, of course, the ideal choice. However, the hydrogen storage is still a big challenge due to its gaseous nature, extremely low boiling point, and high inflammability. While advanced hydrogen storage technology is under development, fuel cells using liquid fuels (e.g. hydrazine) need to be developed. The key to both water electrolysis and fuel cells is the electrocatalyst. Currently, the noble metal based materials are still the state-of-the-art electrocatalysts for water electrolysis and in fuel cells in terms of catalytic activity and catalyst durability. However, their scarcity and high price hinder their widespread commercial use. Therefore, it is imperative to develop earth-abundant, low-cost electrocatalyst materials that have high catalytic activity comparable to or even better than the noble metal based electrocatalysts. Nowadays, the research emphasis of earth-abundant electrocatalysts is thus primarily placed on enhancing the catalytic activity or lowering the overpotential that is needed to drive the electrochemical reactions. The catalytic performance of an electrocatalyst is associated with its surface area, near-surface structure, electronic structure, conductivity, crystal size, etc. Rational structural modification of the electrocatalyst materials and/or architectural design of the catalyst electrodes can help enlarge the surface area, increase the active sites, tune the electronic structure and conductivity, and so on. In this dissertation, a series of strategies (e.g. hydrogenation, solvothermal reduction, and electrochemical tuning) have been developed to fabricate structure-tuned electrocatalyst materials for electrochemical water splitting and electro-oxidation of hydrazine. Well-defined Co/Co3O4 and Co/CoO core-shell heterostructures have been found to be highly active towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and hydrazine oxidation, respectively. FeNi3/NiFeOx nanohybrids have been thoroughly characterized for HER and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Nano-on-micro Cu has been explored as a highly efficient catalyst towards electro-oxidation of hydrazine. Cobalt hydroxide carbonate with rich grain boundaries has been shown to be a highly efficient non-metallic electrocatalyst towards hydrazine oxidation.

Nanostructured Materials for Next-Generation Energy Storage and Conversion

Nanostructured Materials for Next-Generation Energy Storage and Conversion PDF Author: Fan Li
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783662585795
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The energy crisis and pollution have posed significant risks to the environment, transportation, and economy over the last century. Thus, green energy becomes one of the critical global technologies and the use of nanomaterials in these technologies is an important and active research area. This book series presents the progress and opportunities in green energy sustainability. Developments in nanoscaled electrocatalysts, solid oxide and proton exchange membrane fuel cells, lithium ion batteries, and photovoltaic techniques comprise the area of energy storage and conversion. Developments in carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and hydrogen (H2) storage using tunable structured materials are discussed. Design and characterization of new nanoscaled materials with controllable particle size, structure, shape, porosity and band gap to enhance next generation energy systems are also included. The technical topics covered in this series are metal organic frameworks, nanoparticles, nanocomposites, proton exchange membrane fuel cell catalysts, solid oxide fuel cell electrode design, trapping of carbon dioxide, and hydrogen gas storage.

Nanoelectrocatalysts for Energy and Water Treatment

Nanoelectrocatalysts for Energy and Water Treatment PDF Author: Kumar Raju
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783031553288
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Nanomaterials have recently garnered significant attention and practical importance for heterogeneous electrocatalysis. This book presents recent developments in the design, synthesis, and characterisation of nanostructured electrocatalytic materials, with a focus on applications to energy and wastewater treatment. Electrocatalytic nanomaterials can enhance process efficiency and sustainability, thus providing innovative solutions for a wide array of areas such as sustainable energy production, conversion, and wastewater treatment. Readers will gain insights into the latest breakthroughs in electrocatalysis and the activity of nanomaterials in energy conversion applications, e.g., fuel cells, hydrogen production, water splitting, and electro/photocatalytic water splitting, as well as for wastewater treatment. The book explores the development of advanced electrocatalysts, particularly hybrid materials.

Electrocatalysts for Low Temperature Fuel Cells

Electrocatalysts for Low Temperature Fuel Cells PDF Author: Thandavarayan Maiyalagan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 3527341323
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Meeting the need for a text on solutions to conditions which have so far been a drawback for this important and trend-setting technology, this monograph places special emphasis on novel, alternative catalysts of low temperature fuel cells. Comprehensive in its coverage, the text discusses not only the electrochemical, mechanistic, and material scientific background, but also provides extensive chapters on the design and fabrication of electrocatalysts. A valuable resource aimed at multidisciplinary audiences in the fields of academia and industry.