Hydrogen fuel cells with non-precious metal catalysts

February 21st, 2022

R&D Focus Areas:
Electricity, Mobility

Lead Organisation:
University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Partners:
KOHODO HYDROGEN ENERGY PTY. LTD

Status:
Active

Start date:
December 2021

Completion date:
December 2024

Key contacts:
Professor Chuan Zhao: chuan.zhao@unsw.edu.au
Dr. Quentin Meyer quentin.meyer@unsw.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$424,566 – Australian Research Council

Project total cost:
Not applicable

Project summary description:
The costs of hydrogen fuel cells electric vehicles is one of their barriers for their wide-scale commercialisation. One of the reasons for their high costs is their heavy reliance on platinum (fuel cell passenger vehicle using 30 to 60 g of platinum). As platinum is one of the rarest and most expensive metals on earth (costs nearing 30,000 USD/kg), its usage needs to be either reduced significantly or replaced by other metals altogether to produce more affordable fuel cells.

This project aims to reduce the reliance of hydrogen fuel cells on platinum catalysts, by synthesising new and low-cost catalysts, characterise them in hydrogen fuel cells to improve their performances, scale up their synthesis, and demonstrate their performances in real hydrogen fuel cell stacks.

Over the last two years, new and low-costs catalysts have been developed using inexpensive metals, which represents a significant milestone to this project’s success. Efforts to improve the performances of these catalysts in fuel cells, and scale-up their synthesis for real device development are actively on-going by Professor Zhao’s research team.

Related publications and key links:
Zhao Group page:
https://www.chemistry.unsw.edu.au/our-research/our-research-groups/zhao-group/clean-energy

Publications:

  1. Nie, Y. et al. Low-Electronegativity Mn-Contraction of PtMn Nanodendrites Boosts Oxygen Reduction Durability. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 63, e202317987 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202317987
  2. Müller-Hülstede, J. et al. What determines the stability of Fe-N-C catalysts in HT-PEMFCs? J. Hydrog. Energy 50, 921-930 (2024). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.09.190
  3. Chen, X. Zeng, Q. Meyer, C. Zhao, Z. He, F. Wu, H. Tang, Y. Cheng, An outstanding NiFe/NF oxygen evolution reaction boosted by the hydroxyl oxides, Electrochimica Acta, 442, 141862, 2023.
  4. Schonvogel, D. et al. Performance and durability of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells with silicon carbide filled polybenzimidazole composite membranes. J Power Sources 591, 233835 (2024). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2023.233835
  5. Xia, Y. Cheng, R. Wang, et al., Porous nanosheet composite with multi-type active centers as an efficient and stable oxygen electrocatalyst in alkaline and acid conditions, Sci. China Mater. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-022-2272-2 (2023)
  6. Müller-Hülstede, L.M. Uhlig, H.Schmies, D. Schonvogel, Q.Meyer, Y.Nie, C.Zhao, J.Vidakovic, P.Wagner, Towards the Reduction of Pt Loading in High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells – Effect of Fe−N−C in Pt-Alloy Cathodes, ChemSusChem, 16, e202202046, 2023.
  7. Meyer, S. Liu, K. Ching, Y.D. Wang, C. Zhao, Operando monitoring of the evolution of triple-phase boundaries in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, Journal of Power Sources 557, 232539, 2023.
  8. D., Wang, Q., Meyer, K. Tang, et al., Large-scale physically accurate modelling of real proton exchange membrane fuel cell with deep learning, Nature Communications., 14, 745, 2023.
  9. Meyer, S. Liu, Y. Li, C. Zhao, Operando Detection of Oxygen Reduction Reaction Kinetics of Fe-N-C Catalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, Journal of Power Sources, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2022.231058
  10. Liu, Q. Meyer, Y. Li, T. Zhao, Z. Su, K. Ching, C. Zhao, Fe-N-C/Fe nanoparticle composite catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, Chemical Communications, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CC07042H
  11. Müller-Hülstede, T. Zierdt, H. Schmies, D. Schonvogel, Q. Meyer, C. Zhao, P. Wagner, M. Wark, Implementation of different Fe–N–C catalysts in high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells – Effect of catalyst and catalyst layer on performance, Journal of Power Sources 537, 231529, 2022.
  12. Osmieri, Q. Meyer, Recent advances in integrating platinum group metal-free catalysts in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Current Opinion in Electrochemistry, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2021.100847
  13. Meyer, C. Zhao, Air perturbation-induced low-frequency inductive electrochemical impedance arc in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, Journal of Power Sources 488, 229245, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2020.229245

Higher degree studies supported:
Two PhDs and a postdoctoral research associate are supported by this project in the University of New South Wales (UNSW)

 

Reviewed: August 2024