In this study, boron-incorporated palladium catalysts supported on carbon (PdBInc./C) were synthesized; they exhibited considerably improved catalytic activity for the oxidation of formate (HCOO–). Boron-induced lattice expansion and electronic modification of Pd were observed in this catalyst through various physicochemical analyses. Furthermore, the effective electronic modification between Pd and B was found to overcome the limitation due to the lattice expansion of Pd and the modification was confirmed from the downshift and broadening of the d-band center. The direction of electron transfer was observed from B to Pd. Based on the experimental results, it is possible to infer that PdBInc./C significantly contributes to the weakening of the hydrogen adsorption, which is regarded as a rate-determining step for the oxidation of HCOO–. As an anode electrode, PdBInc./C also showed an outstanding performance in a direct formate fuel cell owing to its modified electronic structure, which is considered an important property to facilitate hygroscopic fuel accessibility in a practical system.

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The state-of-the-art membrane for alkaline water electrolysis is porous Zirfon®. Unfortunately, Zirfon® has been suffering from the crossover of hydrogen gas permeated through the pores, inducing safety issues including explosion. To date, there have been approaches to solve this problem. One good example is to use anion-conducting ionomer membranes with dense structures. Generally, the membranes, which are made up of hydrocarbon matrices, experience severe degradation, when they are exposed under strong basic conditions at the temperatures higher than 50 oC for high electrochemical performances. In this study, perfluorinated ionomer membranes with extremely high thermo-chemical resistances are developed via the combination of architectural design and supercritical dispersion. References [1] Zirfon perl separator for alkaline water electrolysis, AGFA, April (2016) [2] C. Y Ahn, J, Ahn, S. Y. Kang, O. H. Kim, D. W. Lee, J. H. Lee, J. G. Shim, C. H. Lee, Y. H. Cho, Y. E. Sung, Sci Adv 6, 1-9 (2020) Keywords: Alkaline water electrolysis, Perfluorinated ionomers, Anion conductivity, Thermo-chemical stability, Membrane