Rapid Development of Spray-Based Electrocatalysts

The Power to Rapidly Develop, Screen, Optimize and Scale-Up Low-Precious Metal Alloy Electrocatalyst Compositions

The development of durable, low-cost electrocatalysts with high activity and utilization is one of the keys to meeting cost targets for fuel cell products. Fuel cell and MEA developers understand the need for fast development cycles combined with the confidence that each next generation electrocatalyst material is truly one that can be replicated in high volume production.

Cabot has developed a complete system for discovery of high-performance fuel cell electrocatalysts consisting of rapid synthesis, primary electrochemical testing screen, automated electrode printing and rapid testing in MEA configuration. Cabot’s rapid development system incorporates the same spray-based synthesis technology used for electrocatalyst manufacturing, virtually eliminating scale up challenges.

Cabot’s development team uses these unique tools to design next generations of alloy electrocatalysts. Developmental grades of Cabot’s alloy electrocatalysts are under evaluation with many leading developers of fuel cell systems and MEA components. Several of Cabot’s platinum-alloy compositions demonstrate up to 2 fold improvement in platinum mass activity [A/mgPt] compared to that of pure platinum electrocatalyst in both liquid electrolyte rapid testing and MEA testing. Extensive structural characterization of alloy catalysts demonstrates a unique mechanism of alloy formation at low reduction temperatures, which allows for formation of highly dispersed platinum-alloy particles, 2-4 nm with high degree of alloying and uniformity on micron, sub-micron and nanometer scales.