Research Advances in Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrocatalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 4521

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Guangxi University of Science and Technology, Liuzhou 545006, China
Interests: energy storage materials; metal-air batteries

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fuel cells (FCs) are highly efficient and clean devices that electrochemically convert the chemical energy of fuels into electrical energy, with significantly higher efficiency and much lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to combustion engine technology. As a result, FCs are considered to be the most promising energy conversion strategies in sustainable energy development. Fuel cell technologies can be classified according to the nature of electrolytes, including low-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), alkaline fuel cells (AFCs), phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs) to high-temperature molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs), and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). However, their lower power outputs and durability and higher costs remain problematic and present the main challenges toward their commercialization and massive use. Key materials such as membranes, catalysts, and membrane electrode assemblies still require further low-cost and large-scale fabrication solutions.

This Special Issue aims to introduce research advances in electrocatalysts for fuel cells to alleviate current shortcomings and to better understand the development of fuel cells. This issue welcomes contributions on a variety of topics, original research articles and reviews are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions; please feel free to inform your colleagues about this Special Issue.

Dr. Qiancheng Zhu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • proton-exchange membrane
  • fuels: natural gas, hydrogen, methanol, ethanol and hydrocarbons
  • platinum-group metals (PGM) electrocatalysts
  • non-PGM catalysts
  • fuel cell electrochemistry
  • oxygen reduction reaction
  • hydrogen oxidation reaction
  • density function theory
  • fuel cell systems and applications
  • metal air fuel cell

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 2330 KiB  
Article
Exsolved Nanoparticles Decorated Double Perovskites as High-Performance Anodes for Direct-Ammonia Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
by Yongning Yi, Jiaming Chen, Meigui Xu, Guangming Yang, Ran Ran, Wei Zhou, Wei Wang and Zongping Shao
Catalysts 2023, 13(6), 996; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13060996 - 12 Jun 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1743
Abstract
Due to the high energy density, mature production technology, ease of storage and transportation, and the no carbon/sulfur nature of ammonia fuel, direct-ammonia solid oxide fuel cells (DA-SOFCs) have received rapidly increasing attention, showing distinct advantages over H2-fueled SOFCs and low-temperature [...] Read more.
Due to the high energy density, mature production technology, ease of storage and transportation, and the no carbon/sulfur nature of ammonia fuel, direct-ammonia solid oxide fuel cells (DA-SOFCs) have received rapidly increasing attention, showing distinct advantages over H2-fueled SOFCs and low-temperature fuel cells. However, DA-SOFCs with conventional Ni-based cermet anodes still suffer from several drawbacks, including serious sintering and inferior activity for ammonia decomposition, strongly limiting the large-scale applications. To tackle the above-mentioned issues, exsolved NiCo nanoparticles decorated double perovskite oxides are fabricated and employed as high-performance anodes for DA-SOFCs in this work. By optimizing the Ni doping amount in Sr2CoMo1−xNixO6−δ (x = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3), the reduced Sr2CoMo0.8Ni0.2O6−δ (r-SCMN2) anode exhibits superb catalytic activity for ammonia cracking reaction and high anti-sintering capability. More specifically, the electrolyte-supported single cell with r-SCMN2 nanocomposite anode delivers superior power outputs and operational durability in ammonia fuel as compared with other r-SCMN anodes owing to the significantly promoted nanoparticle exsolution and stronger interaction between alloy nanoparticles and the support. In summary, this study presents an effective strategy for the design of efficient and stable nanocomposite anodes for DA-SOFCs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Advances in Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells)
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13 pages, 3473 KiB  
Article
Durability of Commercial Catalysts within Relevant Stress Testing Protocols
by Elizaveta Moguchikh, Kirill Paperzh, Ilya Pankov, Sergey Belenov and Anastasia Alekseenko
Catalysts 2023, 13(6), 923; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal13060923 - 23 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1169
Abstract
In this study, we analyzed the durability of the commercial Pt/C catalysts with platinum loading of 20% and 40% using two different accelerated durability tests, i.e., using Ar or O2 when bubbling the electrolyte during testing. The structural analysis of the changes [...] Read more.
In this study, we analyzed the durability of the commercial Pt/C catalysts with platinum loading of 20% and 40% using two different accelerated durability tests, i.e., using Ar or O2 when bubbling the electrolyte during testing. The structural analysis of the changes in the morphology of the catalysts was performed by XRD and TEM as well as the assessment of the degradation degree of the catalysts using the values of the specific surface area and ORR activity, both, before and after the stress testing. Regardless of the stress testing conditions, the JM20 material was established to degrade ESA and the catalytic activity to a greater extent than JM40, which may be due to the structural and morphological features of the catalysts and their evolution during the stress testing under various conditions. The JM20 material has been reported to exhibit a greater degree of degradation when bubbling the electrolyte with oxygen during the stress testing compared to argon, which may be explained by a different mechanism of degradation for the catalyst with the predominant oxidation of the carbon support, leading to a different nature of the distribution of the platinum nanoparticles over the surface of the carbon support, according to results that have estimated the number of nanoparticle intersections. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Advances in Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells)
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10 pages, 2129 KiB  
Article
Excessive Na-Doped La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Fe0.4Cu0.1O3-δ Perovskite as an Additional Internal Reforming Catalyst for Direct Carbon Dioxide-Ethanol Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
by Mingfei Li, Jiangbo Dong, Zhengpeng Chen, Kairu Huang, Kai Xiong, Ruoyu Li, Mumin Rao, Chuangting Chen, Yihan Ling and Bin Lin
Catalysts 2022, 12(12), 1600; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12121600 - 07 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1258
Abstract
Direct ethanol solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are the most energy-efficient and low-carbon technology for renewable power generation from biomass fuels, but they are hindered by carbon deposition on the Ni-based cermet anode. In this work, excessive Na+ dopant into La0.75 [...] Read more.
Direct ethanol solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are the most energy-efficient and low-carbon technology for renewable power generation from biomass fuels, but they are hindered by carbon deposition on the Ni-based cermet anode. In this work, excessive Na+ dopant into La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Fe0.4Cu0.1O3-δ (LSCFC) perovskite was used as an additional internal reforming catalyst for direct carbon dioxide-ethanol SOFCs. Excessive Na+-doped LSCFC (N-LSCFC) demonstrated great potential in promoting electrochemical performance and internal reforming process fueled by carbon dioxide-ethanol mixture, because more oxygen vacancies and the precipitated Cu nano catalyst were helpful for the improvement of internal reforming and carbon tolerance. Electrochemical investigations proved that the vertical-microchannel anode supported the single cells using the N-LSCFC-Gd0.1Ce0.9O2-δ (GDC) internal reforming catalyst, showing a peak power density of 1044.41 and 855.56 mW/cm2 at 800 °C fueled by H2 and 50% CO2-50% C2H5OH, respectively. The preceding results indicate that excessive Na+ doping strategy into LSCFC as the additional internal reforming catalyst can improve the electrochemical performance and internal reforming process of direct carbon dioxide-ethanol SOFCs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Advances in Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cells)
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