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

氮掺杂碳纳米材料作为燃料电池高效阴极的机理研究

• 批准号: 1000768
• 负责人: Liming Dai
• 金额: $ 42万
• 依托单位: Case Western Reserve University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-06-01 至 2013-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1000768&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mechanistic; Study; doped; Carbon; Nanomaterials

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).

本计画之目的为研究氮掺杂碳奈米材料作为燃料电池高效能触媒之基本触媒机制。燃料电池通过在阳极氧化例如氢气并在阴极还原氧气而将化学能直接转化为电。铂阴极上相对缓慢的氧还原反应是限制燃料电池的能量转换效率的关键步骤，并且铂催化剂的高成本也已被证明是大众市场燃料电池的主要“阻碍”。该项目将专注于开发新形式的氮掺杂碳纳米材料，作为低成本，无金属，有效的氧还原催化剂。将开发一种独特的方法来实验研究新材料的分子结构和催化活性，结合这种结构的原子模型，将纳米级现象与宏观催化性能联系起来，并评估氧还原反应机制，以实现高效，低成本的燃料电池能量转换。所获得的知识不仅会导致对氧还原反应的新科学原理的深刻理解，而且开发/优化用于燃料电池应用的氮掺杂碳纳米材料，甚至作为用于燃料电池以外的应用的新催化材料。该项目将有利于开发新的催化材料和能源装置，用于清洁能源转换技术（例如燃料电池，电池，太阳能电池），化学和材料工程（例如腐蚀，材料合成）以及生物和环境工程（例如生物传感器，化学传感器）。教育的影响将是创造一个环境，所有级别的学生（研究生，本科生，高中和学生来自代表性不足的群体）从多学科背景的共同努力，发展一个共同的平台。研究经验将被纳入在CWRU（电化学，纳米技术）和阿克伦（多尺度建模）教授的跨学科课程。