Recent progress in electrocatalysts and electrodes for portable fuel cells

Abstract

Fuel cells are devices that transform efficiently the chemical energy of hydrogen or another fuel into clean electricity. The fuel cells technology is attractive for its high-energy efficiency and expanded...

Morphological tuning engineering of Pt@TiO2/graphene catalysts with optimal active surfaces of support for boosting catalytic performance for methanol oxidation

“…15,16 More beneficially, favorable hydrophilic TiO 2 is conducive to the adsorption and dissociation of water molecules on its substrate surface in acid/alkaline media, generating hydroxyl species (OH) to react with CO ads on metal Pt and facilitating subsequent methanol oxidation. 17–19 Additionally, catalytic performance is also greatly related to the morphology and crystalline forms of TiO 2 . It is reported that anatase TiO 2 possessing a fraction of the rutile phase exhibited good catalytic properties compared to the individual phase.…”

Nitrogen‐Doped Bimetallic Carbide‐Graphite Composite as Highly Active and Extremely Stable Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Alkaline Media

“…To date, the overall kinetics of low-temperature fuel cells are restricted by the sluggish cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which demands a high use level of noble metals as active sites to overcome this kinetic barrier. [1] However, the reserves of noble metals in the earth's crust are only tens of Transition metal carbides have been widely used as electrocatalyst materials in oxygen evolution, hydrogen evolution, and ORR. [35][36][37] Bimetallic carbides especially those that are synthesized at high temperature (1300-1400 °C) show a very high electrocatalytic stability and promotion effect on ORR activity.…”

“…To date, the overall kinetics of low‐temperature fuel cells are restricted by the sluggish cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which demands a high use level of noble metals as active sites to overcome this kinetic barrier. [ 1 ] However, the reserves of noble metals in the earth's crust are only tens of thousands of tons, which is difficult to sustain. [ 2 ] Moreover, the stability of noble metal catalyst is relatively poor, further increasing the cost of fuel cells.…”

High performance gas diffusion layers with added deterministic structures

“…Tackling these challenges to increase the power density, advanced materials of all components from catalysts to transport layers are required. 11,12 This work focuses on enhanced transport layers, to reduce the mass transport resistance and the related overpotential. Reducing mass transport losses will enable higher current densities and thus higher power densities can be achieved.…”