Novel conductive metal oxide catalyst supports for fuel cells

目前的聚合物电解质膜燃料电池（PEMFC）技术严重依赖于Pt电催化剂来驱动阳极和阴极反应。通常，Pt纳米颗粒分散在高表面碳载体（Pt/C）上，以最大化催化剂的表面积并提高电池性能。虽然在过去的30年里，炭黑一直是燃料电池中事实上的催化剂载体，但在耐久性方面，它是一种责任，因为它在PEM燃料电池的高酸性和氧化性操作条件下容易腐蚀。这对燃料电池的长期性能是有害的，并且阻碍了燃料电池装置的寿命。该提案的重点是研究和增强一种新的创新燃料电池支持技术，即掺杂钼和硅的钛低价氧化物（TOMS）。这种新的载体材料具有极高的耐腐蚀性和显著的高电子传导性，比迄今为止开发的任何其他金属氧化物基载体都要大得多。正因为如此，TOMS支持技术在汽车和固定电源应用的燃料电池系统中的部署非常有吸引力。预计该项目的成果将导致开发性能更高、成本更低的燃料电池，这将使加拿大能够满足其清洁能源需求。

Current polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) technology rely heavily on Pt electrocatalysts to drive the anodic and cathodic reactions. Normally, Pt nanoparticles are dispersed onto a high surface carbon support (Pt/C) to maximize the surface area of the catalyst and increased cell performance. While carbon black has been the de facto catalyst support in fuel cell over the last 30 years, it is a liability when it comes to durability since it is prone to corrosion under the highly acidic and oxidative operating conditions of a PEM fuel cell. This is detrimental to the long-term performance of a fuel cell and hinders the longevity of fuel cell devices.****This proposal is focused on the study and enhancement of a new innovative fuel cell support technology, titanium sub-oxides doped with both Mo and Si (TOMS). This new support material has extremely high stability to corrosion and remarkable high electronic conductivity, considerably larger than any other metal oxide-based support developed to date. Because of this, the TOMS support technology is highly attractive for deployment in fuel cell systems for automotive and stationary power applications. It is expected that the results from this project will lead to the development of higher-performing and lower-cost fuel cells, which will enable Canada to meet its clean energy needs.****