The PhD study is part of the project NonPrecious Catalysis which aims at developing active catalysts based on more common and cheaper materials for the replacement of platinum in fuel cells. The objectives of my PhD project include the following: synthesis and characterization of novel inexpensive metal catalyst (NPMCs) for Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) with a high density of active sites and excellent stability in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC).
Catalyst synthesis usually proceeds in a small autoclaves at temperatures over 700 °C in Ar atmosphere. For electrochemical characterization a rotating disc electrode (RDE) is used. Glassy carbon (GC) electrode with the catalyst ink (spread on GC surface) is embed to RDE to estimate the activity towards ORR. Among electrochemical characterization, catalyst surface morphology investigation plays important role of elucidating the nature and behavior of nanoparticles. For this purpose different electron microscopy techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used.
Glassy carbon electrodes with catalyst ink
The PhD project is part of the Non Precious Catalysis project, funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.