Breathing new life into fuel cells

Date:
July 29, 2021
Source:
University of Texas at Austin
Summary:
Researchers have discovered new dynamics that could supercharge
a sluggish part of the core chemical reaction in fuel cells.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The demand for clean energy has never been higher, and it has created
a global race to develop new technologies as alternatives to fossil
fuels. Among the most tantalizing of these green energy technologies is
fuel cells. They use hydrogen as fuel to cleanly produce electricity
and could power everything from long-haul trucks to major industrial
processes.


========================================================================== However, fuel cells are held back by sluggish kinetics in a part of the
core chemical reaction that limits efficiency. But, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have discovered new dynamics that could supercharge this reaction using iron-based single-atom catalysts.

The researchers developed a new method to improve the oxygen reduction
portion of the chemical reaction in fuel cells, in which O2 molecules
are split to create water. They did so through a "hydrogel anchoring
strategy" that creates densely packed sets of iron atoms held in place
by a hydrogel polymer. Finding the right formula for spacing these
atoms created interactions that allowed them to morph into catalysts
for oxygen reduction.

Figuring out the density and locational dynamics of these iron atoms
unlocks a level of efficiency in this reaction never before realized. The researchers demonstrated these findings in a new paper published recently
in Nature Catalysis.

The oxygen reduction reaction is perhaps the greatest impediment to
large-scale deployment of fuel cells. The promise of fuel cells lies in
the fact that they are nearly limitless in potential applications. They
can use a wide range of fuels and feedstocks to provide power for systems
as large as a utility power station and as small as a laptop computer.

Academic researchers around the globe are working to enhance fuel cell capabilities. That includes other engineers at UT Austin who are taking
a variety of approaches to solve key problems in fuel cell development.

"It is of the utmost importance to replace fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy sources to tackle major problems plaguing our society
like climate change and the pollution of the atmosphere," said Guihua Yu,
an associate professor of materials science in the Cockrell School's
Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering. "Fuel cells have been
regarded as a highly efficient and sustainable technology to convert
chemical to electrical energy; however, they are limited by the sluggish kinetics of the cathodic oxygen reduction reaction. We found that the
distance between catalyst atoms is the most important factor in maximizing their efficiency for next-generation fuel cells." These findings can
be applied to anything that includes electrocatalytic reactions. That
includes other types of renewable fuels as well as ubiquitous chemical
products such as alcohols, oxygenates, syngas and olefin.

In addition to Yu, authors include Zhaoyu Jin from UT's Texas Materials Institute and the Department of Chemistry; Panpan Li and Zhiwei Fang
from the Texas Materials Institute, and Dan Xiao and Yan Meng from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University in China. The
team has spent more than two years working on this project, and it was
funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences; the Welch Foundation; and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar
Award.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Texas_at_Austin. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Zhaoyu Jin, Panpan Li, Yan Meng, Zhiwei Fang, Dan Xiao, Guihua Yu.

Understanding the inter-site distance effect in single-atom
catalysts for oxygen electroreduction. Nature Catalysis, 2021; 4
(7): 615 DOI: 10.1038/ s41929-021-00650-w ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210729122111.htm

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