University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Dr. Tansel Karabacak’s group was awarded a $300,000 grant with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on the development of advanced nanostructured catalyst materials for next generation polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell electrodes. The grant will support the project over a 3 year period. PEM fuel cell technology stands unprecedented as one of the most promising alternative energy systems for an environmentally friendly, sustainable energy economy. PEM fuel cells can operate with various types of energy carriers including hydrogen, ethanol, and methanol. However, conventional PEM fuel cell electrodes, which are comprised of carbon supported platinum catalyst nanoparticles, suffer from several key limitations that include sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and high Pt loadings at the cathode, agglomeration of Pt nanoparticles, oxidation of carbon support, separation of carbon over time from the membrane, and poor catalyst-carbon support stability. To overcome these limitations of the traditional cathode catalyst, Dr. Karabacak proposes to employ a new nanostructured PEM fuel cell electrode design comprised of single layer carbon-free catalyst nanorod arrays with extremely low Pt loadings, controlled porosity, ideal alloy compositions, and with preferred crystal orientations for enhanced ORR electrochemical activity. Karabacak will use a combination of recently developed small angle deposition (SAD) and glancing angle deposition (GLAD) techniques for the fabrication of the nanorod PEM fuel cell electrodes. The electro-catalysis characterization and fuel cell performance tests will be done in conjunction with Dr. Myer’s research group at Argonne National Labs. More information on the award can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1159830