Yu-Ping Ku

Modern fuel cells suffer from heavy use of noble metals. Hence, tremendous research efforts have been put on finding platinum group metals (PGMs)-free or PGMs-low electrocatalysts. The electrocatalytic activity of discovered new materials is typically estimated using the so called thin-film rotating disk electrode (TF-RDE) method. The catalysts showing promising performance in the TF-RDE are further verified by making and testing a membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The required optimization of the catalyst layer based on the new electrocatalyst is also realized in the MEA, which is quite time consuming. An alternative approach, which combines benefits of TF-RDE and MEA, is a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) half-cell allowing dedicated evaluation of a single electrode in a fraction of the time needed in conventional MEA tests.

During my PhD, I will focus on discovery/optimization of electrocatalysts/catalyst layers for alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) using different GDE approaches. I will investigate both hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) materials. Moreover, for optimization of catalyst layers, different ionomers, catalysts and supports will be studied.