Ballard Power Systems

About: Ballard Power Systems is a company organization based out in Hürth, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell & Anode. The organization has 864 authors who have published 1068 publications receiving 31374 citations.

Batteries and fuel cells for emerging electric vehicle markets

Abstract: Today’s electric vehicles are almost exclusively powered by lithium-ion batteries, but there is a long way to go before electric vehicles become dominant in the global automotive market. In addition to policy support, widespread deployment of electric vehicles requires high-performance and low-cost energy storage technologies, including not only batteries but also alternative electrochemical devices. Here, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of various batteries and hydrogen fuel cells that have the greatest potential to succeed in commercial applications. Three sectors that are not well served by current lithium-ion-powered electric vehicles, namely the long-range, low-cost and high-utilization transportation markets, are discussed. The technological properties that must be improved to fully enable these electric vehicle markets include specific energy, cost, safety and power grid compatibility. Six energy storage and conversion technologies that possess varying combinations of these improved characteristics are compared and separately evaluated for each market. The remainder of the Review briefly discusses the technological status of these clean energy technologies, emphasizing barriers that must be overcome. Recent years have seen significant growth of electric vehicles and extensive development of energy storage technologies. This Review evaluates the potential of a series of promising batteries and hydrogen fuel cells in their deployment in automotive electrification.

High oxygen-reduction activity and durability of nitrogen-doped graphene

Abstract: Nitrogen-doped graphene as a metal-free catalyst for oxygen reduction was synthesized by heat-treatment of graphene using ammonia. It was found that the optimum temperature was 900 °C. The resulting catalyst had a very high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity through a four-electron transfer process in oxygen-saturated 0.1 M KOH. Most importantly, the electrocatalytic activity and durability of this material are comparable or better than the commercial Pt/C (loading: 4.85 µgPt cm−2). XPS characterization of these catalysts was tested to identify the active N species for ORR.

Single-atom Catalysis Using Pt/Graphene Achieved through Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract: Platinum-nanoparticle-based catalysts are widely used in many important chemical processes and automobile industries. Downsizing catalyst nanoparticles to single atoms is highly desirable to maximize their use efficiency, however, very challenging. Here we report a practical synthesis for isolated single Pt atoms anchored to graphene nanosheet using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. ALD offers the capability of precise control of catalyst size span from single atom, subnanometer cluster to nanoparticle. The single-atom catalysts exhibit significantly improved catalytic activity (up to 10 times) over that of the state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C catalyst. X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analyses reveal that the low-coordination and partially unoccupied densities of states of 5d orbital of Pt atoms are responsible for the excellent performance. This work is anticipated to form the basis for the exploration of a next generation of highly efficient single-atom catalysts for various applications.