Characterization of nanoporous catalyst layers for PEMFCs

PEMFC 纳米孔催化剂层的表征

• 批准号: 476731-2014
• 负责人: Gostick, Jeffrey
• 金额: $ 3.72万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=618263
• 关键词: Characterization; nanoporous; catalyst; layers; PEMFCs

Fuel cells are the only existing technology capable of directly replacing the internal combustion engine currently used on automobiles. They offer comparable range, power, refueling times, performance and reliability. The main technical barrier to commercialization is their relatively high cost owing to the use of expensive platinum as an electrocatalyst in the so-called catalyst layer (CL). Designing fuel cells to use less platinum is therefore a key step in making fuel cell cost-competitive with the century old internal combustion technology. The aim of this work is to develop tools to measure the various engineering parameters necessary to design an optimized fuel cell. The main challenge when dealing with CLs is the size-scales involved. CLs are a porous layer approximately 10 microns thick, composed carbon-platinum nano-particles, agglomerated together by a network of ion conducting polymer material, interpenetrated with a porous network of 50-500 nm pores. In this project, tools will be developed that can measure or study (a) the electronic conductivity through the percolating network of carbon-platinum particles, (b) the ionic conductivity of the ionomer network, (c) the pore size distribution and connectivity of the void network and (d) the fluid permeability in the pore space. This experimental tools on this list simultaneously provide key structural and transport parameters of these nano-porous materials. The information furnished by these tests will finally allow an independent optimization of the configuration of each phase, while understanding the impact any changes in one realm have on the others.

燃料电池是目前唯一能够直接取代汽车上使用的内燃机的技术。它们的续航里程、动力、加油时间、性能和可靠性都不相上下。商业化的主要技术障碍是其相对较高的成本，因为在所谓的催化剂层（CL）中使用昂贵的铂作为电催化剂。因此，设计使用较少铂的燃料电池是使燃料电池在成本上与已有百年历史的内燃技术相比具有竞争力的关键一步。这项工作的目的是开发工具来测量设计优化燃料电池所需的各种工程参数。处理CLs时的主要挑战是所涉及的规模。CLs是一个约10微米厚的多孔层，由碳铂纳米粒子组成，由离子导电聚合物材料网络聚集在一起，由50-500 nm的孔网络相互渗透。在这个项目中，将开发工具来测量或研究(a)通过碳铂颗粒渗透网络的电子导电性，(b)离子网络的离子导电性，(c)孔隙网络的孔径分布和连通性，以及(d)孔隙空间中的流体渗透率。这些实验工具同时提供了这些纳米多孔材料的关键结构和输运参数。这些测试提供的信息最终将允许对每个阶段的配置进行独立优化，同时了解一个领域中的任何更改对其他领域的影响。