The Mechanistic Study on N-doped Carbon Nanomaterials as Highly Efficient Cathode for Fuel Cells

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The objective of this project is to study fundamental catalytic mechanisms of nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials as high-performance catalysts for fuel cells. Fuel cells convert chemical energy directly into electricity by oxidizing, for example, hydrogen gas at the anode and reducing oxygen gas at the cathode. The relatively slow oxygen reduction reaction on the platinum cathode is a key step to limit the energy conversion efficiency of a fuel cell, and the high cost of the platinum catalysts has also been shown to be the major "showstopper" to mass market fuel cells. This project will focus on the development of new forms of nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials as low-cost, metal-free, efficient catalysts for oxygen reduction. A unique approach will be developed to experimentally study the molecular structures and catalytic activities of the new materials, in conjunction with an atomistic modeling of such structures to link the nanoscale phenomena to macroscopic catalytic performance and to evaluate the oxygen reduction reaction mechanism for highly-efficient, low-cost energy conversion in fuel cells.The knowledge acquired will lead to not only a strong fundamental understanding of new scientific principles for the oxygen reduction reaction, but also developing/optimizing the nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterials for fuel cell applications, even as new catalytic materials for applications beyond fuel cells. This project will benefit in developing new catalytic materials and energy devices for a broad range of applications in the field of clean energy conversion technologies (e.g. fuel cells, batteries, solar cells), chemical and materials engineering (e.g. corrosion, material synthesis), and biological and environmental engineering (e.g. biosensors, chemical sensors). The education impact will be to create an environment where all-level students (graduate, undergraduate, high school, and students from underrepresented groups) from multidisciplinary background work together on the development of a common platform. The research experience will be incorporated in interdisciplinary classes taught at CWRU (Electrochemistry, Nanotechnology) and Akron (Multiscale Modeling).