Electrochemical Studies of Fuel Cell Anode Catalysts

Eric D. Rus (Cornell University)

Improving catalysis at fuel cell electrode materials represents a major obstacle to the practical viability of these devices. The aims of my research have been to better understand the catalysis of small organic molecule fuel oxidation, the development of instrumentation to study electrocatalytic reactions, and testing new materials under device operating conditions. I will present an overview of my work in these areas. A mechanistic study of the electrooxidation of dimethoxymethane (DMM) at platinum using differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) and in situ FTIR spectroscopy will be presented. These in situ spectroscopic techniques allow for the identification and some cases quantification of chemical species involved in the reaction. Methyl formate and CO2 were detected as products of DMM oxidation, and the former was found to be more prevalent under all conditions tested. Isotopically (13C) labeled DMM was used to track carbon atoms from reactant to product. The development of a combined scanning probe DEMS (SDEMS) scanning electrochemical microscope (SECM) instrument will also be presented. This instrument is used as a supplement to ongoing efforts in screening combinatorial anode catalyst libraries using a pH sensitive fluorescence assay. While the fluorescence method rapidly identifies regions of a composition spread active for small organic molecule oxidation, it does not give an indication of the completeness of the reaction. The SDEMS enables a more in depth analysis by unambiguously identifying products with spatial resolution. Fuel cell testing results for a Pt/Ti0.7W0.3O2 catalyst of interest for CO tolerance will also be presented.

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