New materials hold the key to fundamental advances in energy conversion and storage, both of which are vital in order to meet the challenge of global warming and the finite nature of fossil fuels. Nanomaterials in particular offer unique properties or combinations of properties as electrodes and electrolytes in a range of energy devices. This review describes some recent developments in the discovery of nanoelectrolytes and nanoelectrodes for lithium batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors. The advantages and disadvantages of the nanoscale in materials design for such devices are highlighted.

https://img62.chem17.com/1/20140715/635410323829886334962.pdf

Nanostructured materials for advanced energy conversion and storage devices

The recent advances in electrocatalysis for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are thoroughly reviewed. This comprehensive Review focuses on the low- and non-platinum electrocatalysts including advanced platinum alloys, core–shell structures, palladium-based catalysts, metal oxides and chalcogenides, carbon-based non-noble metal catalysts, and metal-free catalysts. The recent development of ORR electrocatalysts with novel structures and compositions is highlighted. The understandings of the correlation between the activity and the shape, size, composition, and synthesis method are summarized. For the carbon-based materials, their performance and stability in fuel cells and comparisons with those of platinum are documented. The research directions as well as perspectives on the further development of more active and less expensive electrocatalysts are provided.

http://repository.ust.hk/ir/bitstream/1783.1-77094/1/acs.chemrev.5b00462_withlink.pdf

Recent Advances in Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Rod Borup is a Team Leader in the fuel cell program at Los Alamos National Lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He received his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1988 and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1993. He has worked on fuel cell technology since 1994, working in the areas of hydrogen production and PEM fuel cell stack components. He has been awarded 12 U.S. patents, authored over 40 papers related to fuel cell technology, and presented over 50 oral papers at national meetings. His current main research area is related to water transport in PEM fuel cells and PEM fuel cell durability. Recently, he was awarded the 2005 DOE Hydrogen Program R&D Award for the most significant R&D contribution of the year for his team's work in fuel cell durability and was the Principal Investigator for the 2004 Fuel Cell Seminar (San Antonio, TX, USA) Best Poster Award. Jeremy Meyers is an Assistant Professor of materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research focuses on the development of electrochemical energy systems and materials. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas, Jeremy workedmore » as manager of the advanced transportation technology group at UTC Power, where he was responsible for developing new system designs and components for automotive PEM fuel cell power plants. While at UTC Power, Jeremy led several customer development projects and a DOE-sponsored investigation into novel catalysts and membranes for PEM fuel cells. Jeremy has coauthored several papers on key mechanisms of fuel cell degradation and is a co-inventor of several patents. In 2006, Jeremy and several colleagues received the George Mead Medal, UTC's highest award for engineering achievement, and he served as the co-chair of the Gordon Research Conference on fuel cells. Jeremy received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. Bryan Pivovar received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1994. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 2000 under the direction of Profs. Ed Cussler and Bill Smyrl, studying transport properties in fuel cell electrolytes. He continued working in the area of polymer electrolyte fuel cells at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a post-doc (2000-2001), as a technical staff member (2001-2005), and in his current position as a team leader (2005-present). In this time, Bryan's research has expanded to include further aspects of fuel cell operation, including electrodes, subfreezing effects, alternative polymers, hydroxide conductors, fuel cell interfaces, impurities, water transport, and high-temperature membranes. Bryan has served at various levels in national and international conferences and workshops, including organizing a DOE sponsored workshop on freezing effects in fuel cells and an ARO sponsored workshop on alkaline membrane fuel cells, and he was co-chair of the 2007 Gordon Research Conference on Fuel Cells. Minoru Inaba is a Professor at the Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Doshisha University, Japan. He received his B.Sc. from the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, in 1984 and his M.Sc. in 1986 and his Dr. Eng. in 1995 from the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. He has worked on electrochemical energy conversion systems including fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries at Kyoto University (1992-2002) and at Doshisha University (2002-present). His primary research interest is the durability of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), in particular, membrane degradation, and he has been involved in NEDO R&D research projects on PEFC durability since 2001. He has authored over 140 technical papers and 30 review articles. Kenichiro Ota is a Professor of the Chemical Energy Laboratory at the Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Japan. He received his B.S.E. in Applied Chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1968 and his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1973. He has worked on hydrogen energy and fuel cells since 1974, working on materials science for fuel cells and water electrolysis. He has published more than 150 original papers, 70 review papers, and 50 scientific books. He is now the president of the Hydrogen Energy Systems Society of Japan, the chairman of the Fuel Cell Research Group of the Electrochemical Society of Japan, and the chairman of the National Committee for the Standardization of the Stationary Fuel Cells. ABSTRACT TRUNCATED« less

Scientific aspects of polymer electrolyte fuel cell durability and degradation.

https://cmapspublic3.ihmc.us/rid=1N3976C22-12M3P49-9V/Holladay%20et%20al.%20-%202009%20-%20An%20overview%20of%20hydrogen%20production%20technologies.pdf

An overview of hydrogen production technologies

https://web.iitd.ac.in/~arunku/files/CEL311_Y13/Adsorption%20Theory%20to%20practice_Dabrowski.pdf

Adsorption — from theory to practice

The objective of the present work is the study of CH4 tri-reforming process (simultaneous carbon dioxide reforming, steam reforming and oxygen reforming) that can contribute to the CO2 abatement producing synthesis gas with the desiderate H2/CO ratio. A series of Ni–CeO2 catalysts with different La loadings is prepared by combustion synthesis and tested as catalysts in CH4 Tri-reforming reaction at 800 °C under atmospheric pressure with a GHSV of 30,000 h−1. It has been found that during tri-reforming reaction the activity of Ni–ceria catalysts can be enhanced by an appropriate amount of La doping (10 at.%), the CH4 and CO2 conversion increases from 93% and 83% to 96% and 86.5%, respectively. The activity enhancement appears to be related to synergic effect of nickel–lanthana–surface oxygen vacancies of ceria via interfacial active sites that contribute to increase the nickel dispersion and create a basic site distribution on the surface able to interact with CO2.

Hydrogen production by methane tri-reforming process over Ni–ceria catalysts: Effect of La-doping

Methanation of carbon oxides (CO and CO2) was studied over Ni-based catalysts supported on CeO2, Al2O3, and Y2O3 oxides. Catalysts were synthesized by solution combustion synthesis and characterized by N2-physisorption, XRD, H2-TPR, TEM, CO-chemisorption, UV–vis DRS, XPS, and CO2-TPD. The effect of reaction temperature (250−500 °C) was investigated under atmospheric pressure, space velocity (GHSV) of 10,000 h−1, and stoichiometric reactants ratio of (H2-CO2)/(CO + CO2) = 3. It can be concluded that the nature of Ni-support interactions played a crucial role in enhancing CO and CO2 hydrogenation at low reaction temperature. Ni/CeO2 catalyst deactivated rapidly due to coke deposition, while the formation of NiAl2O4 spinel explained the lower activity of the Al2O3-supported system. Activity data for Ni/Y2O3 catalysts were closely related to the degree of Ni dispersion as well as to the medium-strength basicity. Good anti-coking and anti-sintering ability were observed after 200 h of lifetime test.

/pdf/co-and-co2-methanation-over-ni-catalysts-supported-on-ceo2-383kygybck.pdf

CO and CO2 methanation over Ni catalysts supported on CeO2, Al2O3 and Y2O3 oxides

Modeling polymer electrolyte fuel cells: an innovative approach

Analysis of platinum particle size and oxygen reduction in phosphoric acid

Fuel cell developers are investigating the generation of hydrogen from light hydrocarbons, such as methane or natural gas, for fuelling polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) This study demonstrates generation of H 2 and CO by catalytic partial-oxidation of CH 4 in air at atmospheric pressure on a ceria-supported platinum catalyst prepared by a novel solution-combustion method where platinum is present in ionically-substituted form These catalysts at different platinum loadings showed methane conversion and hydrogen selectivity of 90 and 97%, respectively Interestingly, there is little carbon deposition in the catalytic reactor even after prolonged reaction time

Lidia Pino

Papers

Hydrogen production by methane tri-reforming process over Ni–ceria catalysts: Effect of La-doping

CO and CO2 methanation over Ni catalysts supported on CeO2, Al2O3 and Y2O3 oxides

Modeling polymer electrolyte fuel cells: an innovative approach

Analysis of platinum particle size and oxygen reduction in phosphoric acid

Catalytic partial-oxidation of methane on a ceria-supported platinum catalyst for application in fuel cell electric vehicles