Engineering reduced precious metal catalysts for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- As a renewable chemical and fuel, hydrogen produced from water electrolyzers is playing an increasingly important role across many sectors of the economy. However, proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers are still at an economic disadvantage relative to the competing methane-derived hydrogen production process, in part due to the expensive precious metal catalysts, Pt and IrOx. The aim of this dissertation is to design and develop hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts with reduced precious metal content, while maintaining or improving efficiency and stability. In the first section, we rationalize the need to diversify catalysts beyond Pt and IrOx using market-based analysis and we use technoeconomic analysis to develop a cost-based framework for establishing novel catalyst performance targets. We then demonstrate the feasibility to utilize non-precious metal HER catalysts in a commercial PEM electrolyzer, highlighting its remarkable stability. We then investigate the fundamental properties of reduced precious metal OER catalysts. We combine lab-scale aqueous electrolyte experiments, computational material methods, and advanced characterization techniques to explain the high OER activity of Ru- and Ir-based pyrochlores. While these materials did not demonstrate greater stability than commercially-used IrOx, this wholistic approach to studying catalysts is important for determining new design principles for OER catalyst stability. We further show that these OER catalysts can be integrated into a PEM electrolyzer configuration and maintain high activity and stability at moderate current densities.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Hubert, McKenzie Austin |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Jaramillo, Thomas Francisco |
| Thesis advisor | Jaramillo, Thomas Francisco |
| Thesis advisor | Cargnello, Matteo |
| Thesis advisor | Tarpeh, William |
| Degree committee member | Cargnello, Matteo |
| Degree committee member | Tarpeh, William |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Chemical Engineering |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | McKenzie Hubert. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/zd098yr7056 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by McKenzie Austin Hubert
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
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