PEM Fuel Cells Catalysts and Membranes Breakout Section Report

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PEM Fuel CellsCatalysts and MembranesBreakout
Section Report
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Top Areas of Interest

• Electrocatalysis
• Membranes
• MEAs
• Durability (embedded)
• Bipolar Plates

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Electrocatalysis drivers

• Recognized as the most critical problem area
  requiring a breakthrough
• Need for increased understanding, new materials
• Impact on all top-level practical issues (cost,
  durability, performance)

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Electrocatalysis Path forward

• Can we draw lessons from heterogeneous catalysis,
  bio-systems?
• Near term Pt alloys, support effects Why is Pt
  so good?
• Longer term (NSF-style) strong shift to non-Pt
  approaches extensive theory and modeling
• New tools needed experimental ways to look
  inside at buried interfaces

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Membranes drivers

• Need for new functionality to enable operation at
  low RH, higher T
• Durability is a major concern

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Membranes Path forward

• Definite need for structure-property
  relationships
• Degradation chemistry must be delineated
• Fluoropolymers most promising
• Near term understand transport in Nafion and
  related materials
• Longer term (NSF-style) research in new polymer
  materials and in other classes (SSI, ceramics)
  theory and modeling combined with extensive
  experimentation

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MEAs

• Interfaces very important
• Need to understand composite structures
• Mixed conduction
• Nanoscale interactions
• Durability issues
• Path forward
• Near term improve functional composite
  structures
• Longer term (NSF-style) radical new fabrication
  modes deal with non-polymer matls

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Miscellaneous

• Bipolar plates need for corrosion
  inhibition--gtfundamental understanding
• Modeling need for multi-scale integration

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Education

• Need a central resource for training of newbies
  in the field
• Balance bottoms-up and top-down
• Provide best-practices via hands-on
• NSF should espouse educational mission across the
  board in this area
• Rely on strong draw of energy field
• Many innovative ideas on how to get info across

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Programmatic Suggestions

• We strongly encourage NSF to specifically target
  funding toward this area
• Need to invigorate certain key disciplines
• Solid state ionics
• Electrochemical materials science
• Aging of functional materials
• Need to encourage broader participation from
  other disciplines
• Polymer science
• Catalysis