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Nano Research 2023, 16(4): 4365-4380 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5082-z
Mini Review | Issue | Published: 26 October 2022

The cathode catalysts of hydrogen fuel cell: From laboratory toward practical application

Show Author's Information Shuang Cao1,§,  Tong Sun1,§,  Jin-Rong Li1,  Qin-Zhu Li1,  Chun-Chao Hou2( ),  Qi Sun1( )
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute for Sustainable Energy and Resources, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

§ Shuang Cao and Tong Sun contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
oxygen reduction reaction, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, hydrogen energy, membrane electrode assembly
Topics:
Catalysis
Cite this article:
Cao S, Sun T, Li J-R, et al. The cathode catalysts of hydrogen fuel cell: From laboratory toward practical application. Nano Research, 2023, 16(4): 4365-4380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5082-z
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Abstract Full text About this article

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have received a sustained world-wide attention owing to their promising applications based on clean energy. However, their widespread applications are still restricted by the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process. Over the past decades, significant efforts have been devoted to developing efficient ORR catalysts, which have been summarized in numerous previous reviews. Unfortunately, most of them mainly focused on ORR activity on the rotating disk electrode (RDE) level, which cannot truly represent the performance in real applications. Developing and showcasing efficient catalysts evaluated at the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) level is of vital importance. In this review, we first briefly showcased the recent development of ORR catalysts and then put more emphasis on the discussion of designing efficient catalysts at MEA and full-cell level, aiming to help stimulate more attention on their practical applications.


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About this article

The cathode catalysts of hydrogen fuel cell: From laboratory toward practical application

Show Author's information Shuang Cao1,§, Tong Sun1,§, Jin-Rong Li1, Qin-Zhu Li1, Chun-Chao Hou2( ), Qi Sun1( )
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Institute for Sustainable Energy and Resources, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

§ Shuang Cao and Tong Sun contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have received a sustained world-wide attention owing to their promising applications based on clean energy. However, their widespread applications are still restricted by the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process. Over the past decades, significant efforts have been devoted to developing efficient ORR catalysts, which have been summarized in numerous previous reviews. Unfortunately, most of them mainly focused on ORR activity on the rotating disk electrode (RDE) level, which cannot truly represent the performance in real applications. Developing and showcasing efficient catalysts evaluated at the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) level is of vital importance. In this review, we first briefly showcased the recent development of ORR catalysts and then put more emphasis on the discussion of designing efficient catalysts at MEA and full-cell level, aiming to help stimulate more attention on their practical applications.

Keywords: oxygen reduction reaction, proton exchange membrane fuel cells, hydrogen energy, membrane electrode assembly

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 02 August 2022
Revised: 06 September 2022
Accepted: 20 September 2022
Published: 26 October 2022
Issue date: April 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR202103040753) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22102086).

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