Research Projects

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells offer an alternative means of energy mining that uses fuels that have high calorific value and give eco-friendly byproducts. Extracting energy from hydrogen in a fuel cell requires its oxidation at the anode and simultaneous reduction of oxygen at the platinum cathode. Due to the high cost of platinum and the relatively slow reduction rate of oxygen at the cathode, the development of hydrogen-based fuel cells necessitates alternative cathode materials that are cheap and kinetically robust. The proposed work aims to synthesize novel cathode electrocatalysts for ORR and to use them as cathodes for PEMFC. The proposed materials would be synthesized using first-row transition metal (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) that would serve as a cheaper alternative material than the state of art platinum. These materials would be carbon-supported MOFs or MOF-derived nanocomposites that contain highly conducting metal/metal oxide@C, metal/metal carbide@C. MOFs would be synthesized using the isoreticular design principle that would lead to a structurally analogous series of porous MOFs. This synthetic design would therefore give materials that are low cost, redox-active, porous, conductive, and contain high metal density. The carbon-supported MOFs or MOF-derived nanocomposite would be modified into electrodes and their electrochemical characterization would be performed both in acid as well as alkaline medium. The isoreticular series of MOFs derived carbon supported materials would be screened for ORR and the materials higher onset potential, high current density, better kinetic parameters, and selectivity (for four electron reduction process) would be identified. The underlying surface-catalyzed reaction mechanism will be studied using a combination of kinetic, spectroscopic, and computational studies. The developed electroactive material(s) with promising ORR activity would be used as cathode material for the PEMFC studies. Successful completion of the work would allow the PI to screen through MOFs based porous materials in finding efficient cathode materials for PEMFC and would also make comprehensive assessment of possibility of integrating the project knowledge outcome towards product development for prototype stage.

MOF, metal composites, ORR, fuel cells