Oxygen Reduction Catalysts in Alkaline Electrolyte

Abstract: Alkaline fuel cells are a promising technology, with their sturdy design and many applications they are held back mostly by their cost. By introducing a catalyst, the activation energy of the cell can be reduced to an overcomable amount. Unfortunately, due to the high cost and sparse availability of the most used catalyst metal today, platinum, it has become apparent that a new suitable catalyst must be found in order to make the fuel cells economically feasible. Silver and palladium have been proposed as promising alternatives, sharing a majority of the traits but with a fraction of the cost. The original aim of this project was to study the performance of electrodes in an alkaline electrolyte loaded with different ratios of palladium and silver. However, due to the COVID-19 situation the project was not able to be completed and the aim of the project changed. The new aim was divided into two parts. The first one being to study how the initial concentration of silver ions affects the size of the obtained particles. This was achieved by a radiolysis-based method of synthesis in an aqueous solution. The second aim was to study the performance of the electrodes loaded with different amounts of silver and different average particle size. However, this part was not possible to conduct either. Therefore, results from a previous study performed by I. L. Soroka et al. was used for discussion. The results point towards a lower initial concentration achieving a smaller average particle size and a lower loading of catalyst on the electrode can be compensated by a smaller average particle size of the catalyst.