Towards computational design of catalyst layers for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: linking multi-scale modeling and additive manufacturing

到2050年超过500万辆质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)电动汽车的愿景，以及德国氢战略中预期的在从客运到重型、海运和空中交通等机动性领域的更广泛应用，都需要进一步开发PEMFC技术。质子交换膜燃料电池更广泛的经济渗透主要是因为用作标准催化剂的非常昂贵的铂的成本很高，约占整个系统成本的42%。负载量高的主要原因是阴极发生缓慢的氧还原反应(ORR)。因此，先进的催化剂层(CL)结构对于优化铂的利用，从而实现PEMFC的成本目标至关重要。该项目的总体目标是评估通过开发催化剂分布不均匀的先进阴极CLS来降低PEMFC阴极CLS成本的可行性。为了开发提议的电极，将利用阿尔伯塔大学(加拿大埃德蒙顿)和德国洛夫特和劳姆法特中心(DLR)、工程热力学研究所以及电化学能源技术和计算电化学系(德国奥尔登堡和斯图加特)在制造、表征和测试方面的专门知识和最新进展。催化剂分布不均匀的催化层将在UAlberta使用喷墨打印技术制造。然后，将使用先进的计算机断层扫描和电子显微镜技术以及DLR的分段燃料电池硬件对电极进行表征和测试。参与该项目的研究生和研究人员将通过参加两个国际会议来分享他们的发现，一个在德国，一个在加拿大，在那里还将组织一个公开研讨会，与学术界、政府和行业利益攸关方分享该项目的成果。

The vision of more than five million proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) electric vehicles by 2050 of the Canadian Hydrogen Strategy and wider applications in the mobility sector ranging from passenger to heavy duty, marine and air traffic anticipated in the German Hydrogen Strategy requires further development of the PEMFC technology. The broader economic penetration of PEMFCs is mainly prevented by the high cost of the very expensive platinum used as the standard catalyst, which represents approximately 42% of the overall system costs. The high loading is mainly attributed to the cathode electrode where the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) takes place. Consequently, an advanced catalyst layer (CL) structure is crucial for an optimized Pt utilization and thus to achieve cost targets of PEMFC. The overall objective of this project is to assess the feasibility of reducing the cost of cathode CLs for PEMFCs by developing advanced CLs with non-uniform catalyst distribution. In order to develop the proposed electrodes, the expertise and recent advancements in fabrication, characterization and testing at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada) and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics and Departments of Electrochemical Energy Technology and Computational Electrochemistry (Oldenburg and Stuttgart, Germany), will be leveraged. Catalyst layer with non-uniform catalyst distribution will be manufacture with the inkjet printing technology at UAlberta. The electrodes will then be characterized and tested using the advanced computer tomography and electron microscopy techniques, and the segmented cell fuel cell hardware at DLR. Graduate students and researchers in the project will share their findings by attending two international conferences one in Germany and one in Canada where a public workshop will also be organized to share the outcomes of this project with academics, government and industry stakeholders.