Print Email Facebook Twitter Increasing the lifetime of fuel cell catalysts Title Increasing the lifetime of fuel cell catalysts Author Latsuzbaia, R. Contributor Van Esch, J.H. (promotor) Picken, S.J. (promotor) Faculty Applied Sciences Department Chemical Engineering Date 2015-03-06 Abstract In this thesis, I discuss a novel idea of fuel cell catalyst regeneration to increase lifetime of the PEM fuel cell electrode/catalyst operation and, therefore, reduce the catalyst costs. As many of the catalyst degradation mechanisms are difficult to avoid, the regeneration is alternative option to prolong catalyst lifetime. In the thesis, I investigate fundamental aspects of Pt catalyst regeneration ex situ, which can be potentially applied in situ later on. The regeneration strategy consists of two steps: (i) Full or partial dissolution of coarsened Pt catalyst nanoparticles and (ii) Chemical or electrochemical redeposition of the dissolved Pt. I discuss dissolution aspects of Pt nanoparticles in mild and carbon-preserving conditions, which are essential for the subsequent redeposition of the nanoparticles on the same support and potential redeposition strategies. For the redeposition of Pt nanoparticles, we investigate electrodeposition technique and chemical reduction in a templated medium, such as microemulsions. Subject fuel cells To reference this document use: https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:aeb8a717-be8f-4f52-b2bf-b5c7d72c55c9 ISBN 978-94-6186-430-7 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type doctoral thesis Rights (c) 2015 Latsuzbaia, R. Files PDF Thesis-Latsuzbaia.pdf 35.01 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:aeb8a717-be8f-4f52-b2bf-b5c7d72c55c9/datastream/OBJ/view