Advanced Graphene Based Non-Precious Catalysts for Fuel Cells

为了满足现代社会日益增长的能源需求，同时解决环境问题，对具有成本效益的、可持续的和清洁的能源技术的需求达到了历史最高水平。聚合物电解质膜(PEM)燃料电池被高度吹捧，因为它们可以满足这些要求，最明显的是在交通应用中，它们可以显著减少加拿大每年排放到大气中的超过50万吨二氧化碳。然而，目前PEM燃料电池仍然太贵，而且没有足够的耐用性，不能被认为是传统技术(如内燃机)的经济替代品。昂贵的铂基催化剂造成了系统成本高、耐用性差的问题。非贵金属催化剂(NPC)是极具吸引力的替代材料，尽管在生产高活性和操作稳定的材料方面取得了有限的进展，并对其制造和设备集成产生了基本的了解和知识。**石墨烯已成为非常有前途的催化剂载体和电极材料，因为在PEM燃料电池操作中具有良好的比表面积、良好的电子导电性和优异的耐腐蚀性。本提案的目标是通过新技术和独特的三维电极结构来开发四种类型的石墨烯基纳米碳化物，这些电极结构可以在PEM燃料电池的运行条件下提供高的ORR活性和耐用性。这些NPC材料将进行物理、光谱和电化学表征，以阐明影响催化剂活性和稳定性的潜在因素。这一进展对于今后设计和准备技术上实用的核动力源将是至关重要的。在此基础上，一些最有希望的石墨烯催化剂将被集成到独特的NPC电极设计中，将在单电池PEM燃料电池中制备和研究，以优化电极性能，包括厚度、孔隙率、离聚体相互作用等。将进行详细的研究，以便对电极中发生的传输过程进行建模，并优化物理性能和制备参数。最后，优化的NPC电极将进行广泛的性能和耐久性能测试，然后进行后测试表征，以阐明长期性能损失的机理途径，并设计和实施缓解策略。**这项新研究不仅将在石墨烯催化剂设计和电极集成方面提供技术和科学进展，这将对材料科学、电化学、催化和能量存储/转换技术(即电池、燃料电池和超级电容器)具有重要意义，而且与传统的铂基催化剂相比，还将提供巨大的经济优势，并将为燃料电池制造和分销公司带来巨大的成本降低。最后，在这项工作中培训的HQP人员将接受来自教授、博士后研究员和高级研究生的高质量培训，同时获得最先进的设备，以便成功地实施他们的项目和学位计划。预计培训的技术、知识和HQP将使加拿大能源部门的知识型经济受益，同时也会引起材料科学家和工程师、化学工程师、纳米技术专家、催化化学家和电化学家的兴趣。

The demand for cost effective, sustainable and clean energy technologies is at an all-time high in order to meet the ever increasing energy demands of modern society while addressing environmental concerns. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are highly touted as they can meet these requirements, considered most notably for transportation applications whereby they can significantly reduce the over 500 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in Canada each year. Currently however, PEM fuel cells are still too expensive and do not possess sufficient durability to be considered economical alternatives to conventional technologies such as the internal combustion engine. The high system cost and poor durability arises from the expensive platinum (Pt) based catalysts. Non-precious catalysts (NPCs) represent highly attractive alternatives, although still limited progress has been made in terms of producing highly active and operationally stable materials, along with generating fundamental understanding and knowledge regarding their fabrication and device integration.**Graphene has emerged as highly promising catalyst support and electrode materials, owing to fascinating properties including exemplary surface areas, good electronic conductivity, excellent corrosion resistivity during PEM fuel cell operation. It is the objective of the present proposal to develop four types of graphene based NPCs by new techniques and unique 3-dimensional electrode architectures that can provide high ORR activity and durability under PEM fuel cell operating conditions. These NPC materials will be characterized physically, spectroscopically and electrochemically in order to elucidate the underlying factors governing catalyst activity and stability. This progress will be fundamentally crucial for the future design and preparation of technologically practical NPCs. From this, some of the most promising graphene catalysts will be integrated into unique NPC electrode designs that will be prepared and investigated in a single cell PEM fuel cell in order to optimize electrode properties including thickness, porosity, ionomer interactions, etc. Detailed investigations will be applied in order to model transport processes occurring in the electrodes and optimize the physical properties and preparation parameters. Finally it is expected that the optimized NPC electrodes will be extensively tested for performance and durability capabilities, and then subjected to post-testing characterization in order to elucidate the mechanistic pathway of long term performance loss and to design and implement mitigation strategies.**This novel research will not only provide technical and scientific progress in terms of graphene based catalyst design and electrode integration that will be of high importance to materials science, electrochemistry, catalysis and energy storage/conversion technology (i.e. battery, fuel cell and supercapacitor) but also provide immense economic advantages in comparison to conventional Pt based catalysts, and will bring enormous cost reductions to fuel cell manufacture and distribution companies. Finally, the HQP personnel trained in this work will be exposed to top quality training from professors, postdoctoral fellows and senior graduate students, while being provided access to state of the art equipment in order to successfully carry out their projects and degree programs. It is expected that the technologies, knowledge and HQP trained will benefit the Canadian knowledge based economy in the energy sector, while being of interest to materials scientists and engineers, chemical engineers, nanotechnologists, catalysis chemists and electrochemists.