(272a) New Approaches for the Processing of Oxygen Reduction Fuel Cell Catalysts

Hydrogen fuel cell technology has come a long way.  Now this technology reaches a level that many technical hurdles have been overcome for vehicle applications.  One major remaining challenge is the catalysts that are required for reducing oxygen at cathode.  Various Pt and its alloy nanostructures have been examined for their use as highly active and stable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts.  In this talk, I will focus on the latest understanding of nucleation and growth of Pt nanoparticles in non-aqueous solutions, aiming at the design of advanced ORR electrocatalysts with high activity and selectivity.  I will focus on the following topical areas that we have worked on: Preparation of nanoparticles, especially gas reducing agent in liquid solution (GRAILS) method for the preparation of shape- and composition-controlled Pt multimetallic nanostructures; ligand chemistry in the design and controlled synthesis of Pt and its alloy nanostructured catalysts; new potentials for using in situ liquid flow cell transmission electron microscope to study the formation of complex metallic nanoparticles, and applications of these nanoparticles as ORR electrocatalysts.