Novel triple-pore based efficient non-precious metal catalysts for O2 reduction in PEM fuel cells

作为一种清洁、可持续的能源技术，质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)已成为一种极具发展前景的动力源。然而，质子交换膜燃料电池的高成本和耐久性不足大大阻碍了其商业化。由于超过50%的PEMFC电堆成本来自铂基催化剂，因此电催化剂被认为是关键问题。因此，开发低成本、高活性和耐用的无铂催化剂至关重要。这项研究旨在开发新型低成本的Fe/N/C燃料电池电催化剂，以克服阻碍PEMFC广泛商业化的成本、活性和耐久性挑战。主要的挑战是确定三重孔和杂原子对催化剂活性和耐久性的影响，以及如何优化和放大具有高活性和耐久性的催化剂，实现非贵金属催化剂(NPMC)燃料电池的商业化。该项目包括一个强大的合作团队，与世界领先的燃料电池行业支持者，从各个角度接近上述目标。它以电催化剂合成、性能评估、建模和燃料电池运行期间的现场高级研究为特色，导致协同努力揭示与活性和耐久性退化相关的NPMC ORR机制。预计本项目开发的技术可以显著降低成本，提高燃料电池的活性和耐久性，并可以转化为燃料电池产业，最终促进PEMFC的商业化。该项目具有极大的潜力，可以为加拿大的经济、能源和环境部门做出重大贡献。参与该项目的HQP将获得宝贵和全面的培训，并将在加拿大的工业和学术界都很受欢迎

As a clean, sustainable energy technology, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have emerged as highly promising power sources for motive and stationary applications. The commercialization of PEMFCs, however, is greatly hindered by their high cost and insufficient durability. The electrocatalysts are identified to be the key issue, since over 50% of PEMFC stack cost comes from the Pt-based catalyst. The development of low-cost, highly active and durable Pt-free catalysts is therefore of paramount important. The proposed research aims to develop new classes of low-cost Fe/N/C fuel cell electrocatalysts to overcome the cost, activity and durability challenges which hinder the wide-spread commercialization of PEMFCs. The main challenges will be to determine how the triple pores and the heteroatoms affect the activity and durability of the catalysts, and how to optimize and scale up the catalysts with high activity and durability performance, to realize the commercialization of non-precious-metal catalyst (NPMC)-based fuel cells. This project involves a strong collaboration team with a world-leading fuel cell industry supporter, to approach the above goals from all angles. It features a notable mix of electrocatalyst synthesis, performance evaluation, modelling, and in situ advanced investigation during fuel cell functioning, leading to a synergetic effort to reveal the NPMC ORR mechanism related to activity and durability degradation. It is expected that the techniques developed in this project could significantly lower cost, and improve the activity and durability of fuel cells, and could be transferred to fuel cell industry, finally to promote PEMFC commercialization. This project has great potential to contribute significantly to the economic, energy and environmental sectors of Canada. The HQP involved in this project will gain valuable and comprehensive training, and will be in high demand both in the industrial and academic sectors in Canada