Development of Corrosion Resistant Carbon (CRC) Support for Ultralow PGM Catalysts (SBIR Phase I)
- Greenway Energy, LLC, Aiken, SC (United States)
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)
- Johnson Matthey Fuel Cell, Swindon (United Kingdom)
Carbon is used as a support material for both anode and cathode catalysts in state-of-the-art polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Carbon support is susceptible to corrosion under the cathode operating conditions such as presence of oxygen and water, low pH, and high potential at the cathode interface. Corrosion of state-of-the-art carbon supports is inevitable, which leads to platinum catalyst particle detachment from the support and subsequent poor performance. Alternative non-carbon supports such as metal oxides and conducting/non-conducting polymers do not meet all the 2020 DOE technical targets for both the electrocatalyst and catalyst support. Hence, modifications to the carbon supports that makes them more corrosion resistant are of great importance achieve the DOE targets. Phase I of the DOE SBIR Phase I project entitled “Development of Corrosion Resistant Carbon Support for Ultra-low PGM Catalysts” focused on a proof of concept to develop and prepare corrosion resistant carbon (CRC) support and Pt/CRC and Pt-alloy/CRC catalysts. Extensive physical characterization, rotating disc electrode (RDE) studies, and fuel cell testing in 25 cm2 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were performed to evaluate the performance of the developed support and catalysts. The support properties were tailored in highly reproducible 5 g batches. Accelerated stress test (AST) protocols suggested by the U.S DRIVE Fuel Cell Tech Team was employed to show that the Pt/CRC catalyst meets the 2020 DOE targets for catalyst support. We also showed a significant increase in catalyst mass activity for a Pt-Co/CRC catalyst. If successful, the proposed CRC support, Pt/CRC, and Pt-Co/CRC catalysts will increase the life of automotive fuel cells and replace the currently used carbon supports in PEM fuel cell catalysts. The outcome of Phase I and II results will drive continued research and development to scale-up and commercialize the support and catalysts. Generating encouraging and reproducible results during Phase I and II R&D efforts will provide confidence to investors to set up a pilot scale production facility in South Carolina that will provide job opportunities.
- Research Organization:
- Greenway Energy, LLC, Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0017106
- OSTI ID:
- 1466678
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-GreenwayEnergy-17106; 8034478319
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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