Non-noble metal-based nano wire networks as novel support-less catalyst structures in alkaline fuel cells

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The development of stable anion exchange membranes made alkaline fuel cells increasingly attractive in recent years. Due to decreased corrosivity, alkaline systems enable the use of less expensive non-noble catalysts. Using cost-efficient metals, such as nickel, it is even possible to apply bulk structures, which are not supported on a high-surface area material. The focus of this project is on the synthesis of support-less, three-dimensional, non-noble metal based structures using ion-track etched polycarbonate foils as hard templates, and their application in alkaline fuel cells. Ni and Ni-Pd nanowire networks serve as model systems, which can be systematically varied and implemented as a model electrode into a fuel cell with anion-exchange membrane. In contrast to the commercially-applied catalysts, the thus prepared 3D structures are well-defined, can be tailor-made over a wide range of parameters and therefore also used for very fundamental investigations. Applying only cheap non-noble metals in the future enables the use of bulk unsupported electrocatalysts, thus making them a viable alternative also for commercial application. Therefore, not only systematic structure-activity correlations will be investigated, but also experiments with respect to long-term stability in low-temperature fuel cells with alkaline membrane will be performed in order to demonstrate the applicability of these novel structures.