Enhanced Catalysts from Nanostructured Materials

One of the most significant impediments to making the hydrogen economy a reality is the prohibitively high cost of fuel cell catalysts. In order to reduce these costs, a catalyst must be developed with lower precious metal content, using a streamlined production method that does not sacrifice fuel cell performance. This project will develop a plasma-based synthesis method that produces a nano-scale fuel cell catalyst at lower precious metal loadings than currently available. In addition, the process will reduce manpower requirements and eliminate the chemical wastes associated with traditional fuel-cell-catalyst production. Phase I developed a plasma-based synthesis process for a catalyst composed of nano-structured carbon support material imbedded with evenly distributed nano-scale platinum. The performance of fuel cells utilizing the synthesized catalyst was equivalent or superior to that of commercially available catalysts containing 2.5 times greater platinum loadings. In Phase II, the plasma process will be optimized to obtain long range order in the nano-structured carbon support material. The element of the system that deposits the synthesized catalyst onto the fuel cell membrane in situ also will be developed. Finally, a pilot scale, reel-to-reel, catalyst synthesis and deposition process, based on this technology, will be designed. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: In addition to the fuel cell application, the low-cost catalyst production process should benefit other chemical processes that require this type of catalyst. The process not only would reduce the amount of expensive precious metal, but also would reduce labor requirements, speed production times, and eliminate the chemical waste generation inherent in current catalyst production processes