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Selective electrocatalysis imparted by metal–insulator transition for durability enhancement of automotive fuel cells

Nature Catalysis volume 3, pages 639–648 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Repetitive start-up and shut-down events in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for automotive applications lead to serious corrosion of the cathode due to an instantaneous potential jump that results from unintended air leakage into the anodic flow field followed by a parasitic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the anode. Here we report a solution to the cathode corrosion issue during the start-up/shut-down events whereby intelligent catalyst design is used to selectively promote the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) while concomitantly suppressing the ORR on the anode. Platinum thin layers supported on hydrogen tungsten bronze (Pt/HxWO3) suppressed the ORR by converting themselves into an insulator following exposure to oxygen, while selectively promoting the HOR by regaining metallic conductivity following subsequent exposure to hydrogen. The HOR-selective electrocatalysis imparted by a metal–insulator transition in Pt/HxWO3 demonstrated a remarkably enhanced durability of membrane electrode assemblies compared to those with commercial Pt/C catalysts.

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Fig. 1: A schematic of anodic and cathodic electrochemical processes occurring during SU/SD of PEMFCs.
Fig. 2: Electrochemical measurement of HOR-selectivity.
Fig. 3: Characteristic of HxWO3/W in hydrogen/oxygen atmosphere.
Fig. 4: Electrochemical measurements of Pt/m-HxWO3 nanoparticle catalysts.
Fig. 5: Measurement of single-cell performance and durability.

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The data that support the plots in this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea grants (nos. 2019M3D1A1079306, 2019M3E6A1064521). V.S. and N.M.M. were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technologies Office.

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Author notes

  1. These author contributed equally: Sang-Mun Jung, Su-Won Yun, Jun-Hyuk Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea

    Sang-Mun Jung, Sang-Hoon You, Jinheon Park, Junwoo Son & Yong-Tae Kim

  2. Department of Energy System, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea

    Su-Won Yun & Jun-Hyuk Kim

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Seonggyu Lee, Yousung Jung & Jinwoo Lee

  4. Department of Physics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Seo Hyoung Chang

  5. Department of Physics Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Seung Chul Chae

  6. Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Republic of Korea

    Sang Hoon Joo

  7. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Drexel, PA, USA

    Joshua Snyder

  8. Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, USA

    Vojislav Stamenkovic & Nenad M. Markovic

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Contributions

Y.-T.K. conceived and designed the experiments. S.-M.J., S.-W.Y., J.-H.K., S.-H.Y, J.P., S.L., S.H.C. and S.C.C. performed the experiments. Y.-T.K., S.H.J., J.L., Y.J., J. Son, V.S. and N.M.M. analysed the data. Y.-T.K., J. Snyder and N.M.M. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Yong-Tae Kim.

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Jung, SM., Yun, SW., Kim, JH. et al. Selective electrocatalysis imparted by metal–insulator transition for durability enhancement of automotive fuel cells. Nat Catal 3, 639–648 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-020-0475-4

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