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

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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.