New paper “Pt Platinum Dissolution in Realistic Fuel Cell Catalyst Layers” published in Angewandte Chemie
15 January 2021
In their current work the HI ERN-scientists present the first experimental approach to measure Platinum (Pt) dissolution in gas diffusion electrodes (GDE). Therefore they coupled their GDE half-cell setup with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). With this, Pt dissolution in realistic catalyst layers and the transport of dissolved Pt species through Nafion membranes are evaluated directly.
They hereby observe that (i) specific Pt dissolution is increasing significantly with decreasing Pt loading, (ii) in comparison to experiments on aqueous model systems with flow cells, the measured dissolution in GDE experiments is considerably lower and, (iii) by adding a membrane onto the catalyst layer, Pt dissolution is reduced even further. All these phenomena can be attributed to the varying mass transport conditions of dissolved Pt species, influencing re-deposition and equilibrium potential.
With the presented method the researchers were also able to measure the diffusion coefficient of Pt species in Nafion, which can be of great importance when modelling fuel cell degradation.
The paper was recently published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Original publication
Konrad Ehelebe, Julius Knöppel, Markus Bierling, Britta Mayerhöfer, Thomas Böhm, Dr. Nadiia Kulyk, Prof. Dr. Simon Thiele, Prof. Dr. Karl J. J. Mayrhofer, Dr. Serhiy Cherevko
Platinum Dissolution in Realistic Fuel Cell Catalyst Layers
Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 60, Issue 16
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202014711
Contact
Dr. Serhiy Cherevko
Group Leader "Electrochemical Energy Conversion"
Room 4010