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High-performing commercial Fe–N–C cathode electrocatalyst for anion-exchange membrane fuel cells

Nature Energy volume 6, pages 834–843 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

To reduce the cost of fuel cell stacks and systems, it is important to create commercial catalysts that are free of platinum group metals (PGMs). To do this, such catalysts must have very high activity, but also have the correct microstructure to facilitate the transport of reactants and products. Here, we show a high-performing commercial oxygen reduction catalyst that was specifically developed for operation in alkaline media and is demonstrated in the cathode of operating anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs). With H2/O2 reacting gases, AEMFCs made with Fe–N–C cathodes achieved a peak power density exceeding 2 W cm−2 (>1 W cm−2 with H2/air) and operated with very good voltage durability for more than 150 h. These AEMFCs also realized an iR-corrected current density at 0.9 V of 100 mA cm−2. Finally, in a second configuration, Fe–N–C cathodes paired with low-loading PtRu/C anodes (0.125 mg PtRu per cm2, 0.08 mg Pt per cm2) demonstrated a specific power of 10.4 W per mg PGM (16.25 W per mg Pt).

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Fig. 1: Illustration of the synthesis pathway and desired structure of the Fe–N–C ORR catalyst.
Fig. 2: Physicochemical characterization of Fe–N–C.
Fig. 3: Morphology and elemental distribution of Fe–N–C.
Fig. 4: Atomically resolved STEM images of the Fe–N–C catalyst.
Fig. 5: Activity and selectivity of the commercial Fe–N–C catalyst for the ORR.
Fig. 6: AEMFC performance and stability with Fe–N–C cathodes.
Fig. 7: Comparison of single-cell performance.

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Data availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and Supplementary Information files.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technologies Office (HFTO; award no. DE-EE0008433 to H.A. and W.E.M., and award no. DE-EE0008419 to A.Serov and B.Z.). J.R.V. gratefully acknowledges the support of the UK EPSRC (grant no. EP/M014371/1) for the polymer synthesis. J.R.R. also acknowledges the support of the Center of Catalysis for Renewable Fuels (CReF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Horie Adabi, Abolfazl Shakouri, Noor Ul Hassan, John R. Regalbuto & William E. Mustain

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    John R. Varcoe

  3. Pajarito Powder, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Barr Zulevi & Alexey Serov

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  1. Horie Adabi
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Contributions

H.A. and W.E.M. were the primary writers of the manuscript. H.A. designed and performed the electrochemical experiments, characterized the catalyst and analysed the data. H.A. and A. Shakouri together performed the electron microscopy imaging and further characterizations. N.U.H. assisted with the AEMFC testing and data analysis. A. Serov and B.Z. contributed to providing the material and characterizing the Fe–N–C catalyst. J.R.V. provided the membrane and assisted with the writing of the manuscript. J.R.R. oversaw the electron microscopy experiments and provided ICDD licences for XRD. W.E.M. supervised the execution of the overall project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William E. Mustain.

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Competing interests

A. Serov and B.Z. are employees at Pajarito Powder, who supplied the commercial catalyst for this work. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Energy thanks Brian Setzler and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Adabi, H., Shakouri, A., Ul Hassan, N. et al. High-performing commercial Fe–N–C cathode electrocatalyst for anion-exchange membrane fuel cells. Nat Energy 6, 834–843 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00878-7

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