Contacts:

Billie Abrams, Department of Physics, CINF-DTU, 4525-3113 (billie.abrams@fysik.dtu.dk)

Ifan Stephens, Department of Physics, CINF-DTU, 4525-3150 (ifan.stephens@fysik.dtu.dk)

Official supervisor: Ib Chorkendorff, Department of Physics, CINF-DTU, 4525-3170 (ibchork@fysik.dtu.dk)

Schematic diagram of a Proton Exchange membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) (left). Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) showing platinum (Pt) nanoclusters (4nm) that can be used for electrocatalytic reactions such as hydrogen evolution (right).

The fuel cell has the potential to be a source of clean, renewable energy. Using hydrogen as a fuel, the only emission is water.  However, sluggish reaction rates at the fuel cell’s electrodes prevent it reaching its theoretical thermodynamic efficiency. By optimising the electrocatalysts in fuel cells we can ease these kinetic inefficiencies.

New potential electrocatalysts include nanosized metal or alloy materials. It is sometimes difficult to evaluate the details of specific reactions inside the actual fuel cell. Thus it is useful to “pull” the reactions out of the fuel cell and look at them individually in a three-electrode electrochemical cell. This is particularly useful when studying nanoelectrocatalysts and trying to understand how their size and surface properties effect the electrocatalytic activity.

This project involves preparing electrodes consisting of nanoparticles of Pt, alloys of Pt and other possible nanosized metal electrocatalyts. Following sample preparation and optimization will be the electrocatalytic activity measurements and correlation between activity, structure and composition.