2019 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Fundamental Insights into the Synthesis and Degradation of Model Fe-N-C Electrocatalysts
| Project/Area Number |
19H02558
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
LYTH Stephen 九州大学, エネルギー研究教育機構, 准教授 (50618824)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ハリントン ジョージ 九州大学, 持続的共進化地域創成拠点, 特任助教 (20753718)
西原 正通 九州大学, 次世代燃料電池産学連携研究センター, 准教授 (40415972)
吉岡 聰 九州大学, 工学研究院, 助教 (50452818)
林 灯 九州大学, 水素エネルギー国際研究センター, 教授 (60443214)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Electrochemistrty / Carbon / Platinum-free / non-PGM / PEMFC / In-situ characterisation / Hydrogen / Oxygen Reduction Reaction |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
To date, we have synthesised different model catalysts derived from sodium ethoxide, and MOFs, and varied the precursor type and ratio to control the nitrogen and iron content of the resulting materials. The effect of pyrolysis temperature and heating rate on the material properties and electrochemistry were investigated.
Extensive ex-situ characterisation (BET, SEM, XPS, and XRD) were performed, as well as rotating ring-disk electrode voltammetry (RRDE) in both acid and alkaline media. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to determine electrochemical surface are, whilst linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) was used to calculate onset potential, half-wave potential, mass transport limited current density, kinetic current, mass activity, specific activity, & electron transfer number. These electrochemical values were discussed in terms of the materials properties.
X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was performed for atomic level insights into the chemical states of iron and nitrogen in the various different model Fe-N-C catalyst materials.
We investigated how the material precursors decompose during pyrolysis, using in situ HT-XAS at Saga Light Source, in a specially developed X-ray transparent furnace.
We utilized high temperature X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HT-XPS) at Charles University in Czech Republic to further clarify the chemical states of Fe, N, and C during pyrolysis
This work has led to a peer reviewed publication, and several other manuscripts are in preparation.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We are on schedule according to the original plan.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We will continue with the original plan, in particular focusing more on durability testing of the designed electrocatalysts, and membrane electrode assembly (MEA) tests, i,.e. full fuel cell operation. In addition, we will continue with the high temperature in-situ characterisation techniques. We will visit Saga Beam Line several times to continue our XAS investigation. We have applied to use in-situ XPS at Charles University for a second time.
We will attend conferences to present our work, and push to publish the data we already collected.
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