Electrochemical and spectroscopic studies of fuel cell reactions.

摘要

Fuel cells, especially proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are expected soon to become a major source of clean energy. However, the sluggish kinetics of the fuel cell reactions, i.e., the fuel oxidation and oxygen reduction, hinders the wide-spread application of PEMFCs. These problems prompted our studies to focus on elucidating the nature of the reaction intermediates during the oxidation of fuels and the reduction of oxygen on electrocatalysts, and understanding the mechanisms of these reactions. The results from these studies will provide basic information for designing new electrocatalysts. In this dissertation, the oxidation reactions of ethanol and dimethyl ether (DME) on Pt were investigated by the surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy with an attenuated total reflection configuration (ATR-SEIRAS). Various reaction intermediates were detected and their electrochemical behaviors were studied. We also benefited from advantages of the ATR-SEIRAS technique and observed superoxide anion (O2-) and hydrogen peroxide anion (H2-) as the intermediates in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on Pt and Au electrodes for the first time.;The other main goal of this study is design of new electrocatalysts for ORR with low cost and high activity. Two novel electrocatalysts were developed. One is Pt monolayer electrocatalysts consisting of a Pt monolayer formed by a red-ox replacement of the Cu monolayer by Pt atoms on non-noble metal-noble metal core-shell nanoparticles. In such catalyst, the total noble mass activity of the catalyst was 2--6 times larger that of commercial Pt catalyst. Another way of lowering the cost of catalysts and enhancing the ORR activity involves alloying less expensive noble metals with other non-noble elements. In this dissertation, the nano-structured Pd based alloy electrocatalysts have been explored. The results showed that their ORR activities surpass that of commercial Pt. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to address the possible mechanisms for the observed enhancement. The volcano-type dependence of the ORR activity on the d-band center of the noble metal overlayer was established. These results indicate a way for designing new catalysts with greatly improved properties.