Direct Integration of Strained-Pt Catalysts into Proton-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cells with Atomic Layer Deposition

Shicheng Xu; Zhaoxuan Wang; Sam Dull; Yunzhi Liu; Dong Un Lee; Juan S Lezama Pacheco; Marat Orazov; Per Erik Vullum; Anup Lal Dadlani; Olga Vinogradova; Peter Schindler; Qizhan Tam; Thomas D Schladt; Jonathan E Mueller; Sebastian Kirsch; Gerold Huebner; Drew Higgins; Jan Torgersen; Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan; Thomas Francisco Jaramillo; Fritz B Prinz

doi:10.1002/adma.202007885

Direct Integration of Strained-Pt Catalysts into Proton-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cells with Atomic Layer Deposition

Adv Mater. 2021 Jul;33(30):e2007885. doi: 10.1002/adma.202007885. Epub 2021 Jun 10.

Authors

Shicheng Xu¹, Zhaoxuan Wang², Sam Dull³, Yunzhi Liu², Dong Un Lee³, Juan S Lezama Pacheco⁴, Marat Orazov³, Per Erik Vullum⁵, Anup Lal Dadlani⁶, Olga Vinogradova⁷, Peter Schindler², Qizhan Tam¹, Thomas D Schladt⁸, Jonathan E Mueller⁸, Sebastian Kirsch⁸, Gerold Huebner⁸, Drew Higgins^{3

9}, Jan Torgersen⁶, Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan^{7

10}, Thomas Francisco Jaramillo³, Fritz B Prinz^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
² Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
⁴ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
⁵ SINTEF, Trondheim, 7465, Norway.
⁶ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, 7491, Norway.
⁷ Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.
⁸ Volkswagen Group Research, 38436, Wolfsburg, Germany.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L7, Canada.
¹⁰ Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA.

PMID: 34110653
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202007885

Abstract

The design and fabrication of lattice-strained platinum catalysts achieved by removing a soluble core from a platinum shell synthesized via atomic layer deposition, is reported. The remarkable catalytic performance for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), measured in both half-cell and full-cell configurations, is attributed to the observed lattice strain. By further optimizing the nanoparticle geometry and ionomer/carbon interactions, mass activity close to 0.8 A mg_Pt ^-1 @0.9 V iR-free is achievable in the membrane electrode assembly. Nevertheless, active catalysts with high ORR activity do not necessarily lead to high performance in the high-current-density (HCD) region. More attention shall be directed toward HCD performance for enabling high-power-density hydrogen fuel cells.

Keywords: fuel cells; lattice strain; membrane electrode assembly; oxygen reduction reaction; rotating disk electrodes.