碱性燃料电池凭借其特有的热力学和动力学优点，允许使用包括"金属-N"类非铂材料在内的多种阴极催化剂。然而目前对于影响该类催化剂性能的关键因素、反应过程机理，特别是催化剂在工作状态下表面性质的演化还缺乏清晰的认识。本项目旨在依托大科学同步辐射加速装置(上海光源），将原位/在线X射线谱学技术与电化学技术结合, 应用于碱性燃料电池 ORR催化剂的构效关系研究上。在为期三年的探索性研究过程中，将在如下几个方面付诸实践：(a) 丰富和发展原位同步辐射-电化学分析方法学研究，构建原位电化学X射线吸收和衍射光谱测试平台，着重发展先进的“XANES-Δμ”技术；(b)结合原位X射线谱学分析结论，发展新一代碱性燃料电池单原子"金属-N"类非铂催化剂；(c) 发展研究新型催化剂作用机理、性能衰减的新技术、新方法, 并建立先进的ORR催化反应模型，推动新材料和表面科学在大科学同步辐射光源上全新的应用研究。

Alkaline fuel cells (AFC) in conjunction with anion electrolyte membrane (AEM) promise several advantages such as multiple choices of fuels and the potential application of non-noble metal electrocatalysts. The lack of sufficient understanding of the details of the electro-reduction processes on "Metal-Nx" electrocatalysts in alkaline media makes the investigations focused on fundamental oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) mechanisms especially valuable. In this three-year exploratory effort the principal thrust areas are: (a) Provide thorough structure property correlations with a combination of the new in situ synchrotron spectroscopic method (called the ‘Delta mu-Technique’) based on the near edge part of the X-ray absorption spectra (XAS), referred to x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). (b) Use of novel synthesis methods to prepare both the supported metal clusters as well as complex metal coordinated systems according to the main findings from the in situ XAS study. (c) Develop new technologies and methods to explore catalysis and degradation mechanisms for novel non-noble AFC ORR catalysts on the basis of synchrotron spectroscopy. The results of this investigation will provide for very important contribution to science in terms of novel materials as well as surface science.