Abstract
Ionomers in the catalyst layer play a critical role in the performance of fuel cells and electrolyzers. Phenyl adsorption on hydrogen oxidation catalysts and electrochemical oxidation of phenyl moieties on oxygen evolution catalysts are detrimental to the alkaline devices’ performance. Here the adsorption energy of phenyl-containing ionomers is compared to provide the rationale for implementing phenyl-free ionomers. Density functional theory calculations indicated that the norbornane fragment has minimal adsorption energy on Pt(111) due to the absence of aromatic π electrons. A soluble quaternized polynorbornene ionomer is prepared by vinyl addition polymerization, and it exhibits high performance in both fuel cells and electrolyzers, proving the advantage of the phenyl-free structure. This study establishes the phenyl adsorption energy-electrode performance relationship, highlighting the importance of material interactions between the catalysts and ionomers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2203488 |
| Journal | Advanced Energy Materials |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 20 2023 |
Funding
D.P.L. and M.L. contributed equally to this work. This work was fully supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) under contract no. DE‐AC52‐06NA25396 (Los Alamos National Laboratory). Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE‐NA0003525. I. M. acknowledges the use of the computational resources of LANL Institutional Computing Program, which is supported by the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under contract 89233218CNA000001 and NERSC, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under contract DE‐AC02‐05CH11231.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | DE‐AC02‐05CH11231 |
| Office of Science | |
| Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy | |
| National Nuclear Security Administration | 89233218CNA000001, DE‐NA0003525 |
| Los Alamos National Laboratory | |
| Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office | DE‐AC52‐06NA25396 |
| National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center |
Keywords
- anion exchange membranes
- fuel cells
- interaction
- ionomers
- norbornene
- water electrolyzers
