PFI-TT: Next Generation Fuel Cell Catalysts for Efficient Energy Conversion

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is a transformative approach to design and manufacturing of special materials, called catalysts, to accelerate chemical reactions for next-generation energy conversion applications. State-of-the-art catalysts used in fuel cells have low efficiency and poor durability, limiting their widespread use. This program will address the key bottlenecks in catalyst design and manufacturing to increase their efficiency and durability, while reducing their cost. A broad spectrum of high-tech industries could potentially benefit from commercialization of this technology, including automotive industry, consumer electronics, and fuel cell and battery manufacturers. The proposed technology can potentially have a direct impact on high-tech manufacturing in the United States, paving the way for clean-energy technology ventures and possibly leading to multiple start-up companies. This project will enhance the engagement between academia and industry on multiple fronts, including entrepreneurial education, exposure of students to industrial development, and development of a new ecosystem based on clean energy technology. Working alongside industrial partners will help train students to enter the workforce upon graduation with innovation experience beyond their laboratory-based research knowledge. Advanced manufacturing entrepreneurship will be a key outcome of the project. The proposed project will address the key bottlenecks of efficiency, cost, and durability in current energy conversion technologies. It will lead to rapid discovery and scale-up of high performance catalysts, using an integrated manufacturing and computational approach. The higher durability, resistance to poisoning, and lower cost of high-performance amorphous electro-catalysts could be potentially transformative in energy conversion devices. It will provide a pathway for technical advancement of next generation electro-catalysts as well as their successful commercialization. The intellectual merit of the project is based on pulsed co-electrodeposition of catalysts, which will allow fabrication of a wide range of chemistries with continuous control over their surface characteristics. Amorphous metals represent a transformative approach to electro-catalyst design because of their tunable catalytic properties and high concentration of atomic-level defect sites unavailable in current state-of-the-art catalysts. The specific research tasks include combinatorial synthesis of a large number of catalyst libraries by thin-film sputtering, high throughput molecular dynamics simulation, parallel characterization of catalytic activity by advanced multiplexing strategies, and manufacturing scale-up of promising compositions. Finally, the developed catalysts will be benchmarked against the state-of-the-art technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.