TY - JOUR
T1 - A highly-active, stable and low-cost platinum-free anode catalyst based on RuNi for hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells
AU - Xue, Yanrong
AU - Shi, Lin
AU - Liu, Xuerui
AU - Fang, Jinjie
AU - Wang, Xingdong
AU - Setzler, Brian P.
AU - Zhu, Wei
AU - Yan, Yushan
AU - Zhuang, Zhongbin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFA0210300) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21671014).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - The development of cost-effective hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells is limited by the lack of high-performance and low-cost anode hydrogen oxidation reaction catalysts. Here we report a Pt-free catalyst Ru7Ni3/C, which exhibits excellent hydrogen oxidation reaction activity in both rotating disk electrode and membrane electrode assembly measurements. The hydrogen oxidation reaction mass activity and specific activity of Ru7Ni3/C, as measured in rotating disk experiments, is about 21 and 25 times that of Pt/C, and 3 and 5 times that of PtRu/C, respectively. The hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell with Ru7Ni3/C anode can deliver a high peak power density of 2.03 W cm−2 in H2/O2 and 1.23 W cm−2 in H2/air (CO2-free) at 95 °C, surpassing that using PtRu/C anode catalyst, and good durability with less than 5% voltage loss over 100 h of operation. The weakened hydrogen binding of Ru by alloying with Ni and enhanced water adsorption by the presence of surface Ni oxides lead to the high hydrogen oxidation reaction activity of Ru7Ni3/C. By using the Ru7Ni3/C catalyst, the anode cost can be reduced by 85% of the current state-of-the-art PtRu/C, making it highly promising in economical hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells.
AB - The development of cost-effective hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells is limited by the lack of high-performance and low-cost anode hydrogen oxidation reaction catalysts. Here we report a Pt-free catalyst Ru7Ni3/C, which exhibits excellent hydrogen oxidation reaction activity in both rotating disk electrode and membrane electrode assembly measurements. The hydrogen oxidation reaction mass activity and specific activity of Ru7Ni3/C, as measured in rotating disk experiments, is about 21 and 25 times that of Pt/C, and 3 and 5 times that of PtRu/C, respectively. The hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cell with Ru7Ni3/C anode can deliver a high peak power density of 2.03 W cm−2 in H2/O2 and 1.23 W cm−2 in H2/air (CO2-free) at 95 °C, surpassing that using PtRu/C anode catalyst, and good durability with less than 5% voltage loss over 100 h of operation. The weakened hydrogen binding of Ru by alloying with Ni and enhanced water adsorption by the presence of surface Ni oxides lead to the high hydrogen oxidation reaction activity of Ru7Ni3/C. By using the Ru7Ni3/C catalyst, the anode cost can be reduced by 85% of the current state-of-the-art PtRu/C, making it highly promising in economical hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85095438676&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-19413-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-19413-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 33159046
AN - SCOPUS:85095438676
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 5651
ER -