Advanced Electro-Catalysts through Crystallographic Enhancement

Gang Wu Lab

Large sized graphene tube.

Novel large-sized (up to 1000 nm) graphene tubes being robust and active support for Pt catalyst in fuel cells

NGTs are used as an advanced support to boost Pt cathode performance for proton exchange membrane fuel cells, which holds great promise to meet the US DOE 2020 metric targets for fuel cell vehicle applications. 

Overview

In this project, the Gang Wu lab at the University at Buffalo is collaborating with  Los Alamos National Laboratory, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania, to develop a new type of high-surface-area and large size nitrogen-doped graphene tube (NGTs) support. NGTs are used as an advanced support to boost Pt cathode performance for proton exchange membrane fuel cells, which holds great promise to meet the US DOE 2020 metric targets for fuel cell vehicle applications. This project is supported from U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE), Fuel Cell Technologies Office. 

Resulting Publications

  • Wang, X.; Li, Q.; Pan, H.; Lin, Y.; Ke, Y.; Sheng, H.; Swihart, M. T.; Wu, G. Size-controlled large-diameter and few-walled carbon nanotube catalysts for oxygen reduction. Nanoscale, 7, 20290-20298, 2015.

  • Li Q; Pan H; Higgins D.; Zhang G; Cao R; Cho J; Wu G, Metal-Organic Framework Derived Bamboo-like Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Tubes as an Active Matrix for Hybrid Oxygen-Reduction Electrocatalysts. Small, 11, 1443-1452, 2015.
  • Li Y; Liu C; Liu Y; Feng B; Li L; Pan H; Kellogg W R; Higgins D; Wu G. Sn-doped TiO2 modified carbon to support Pt cathode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells, J Power Sources, 286, 354-361, 2015.

  • Li Q; Wu L; Wu G; Su D; Lv HF; Zhang S; Zhu W; Casimir A; Zhu H; Mendoza-Garcia A; Sun S, A New Approach to Fully Ordered fct-FePt Nanoparticles for Much Enhanced Electrocatalysis in Acid, Nano Lett., 15 2468-2473, 2015.

  • Li Y.; Liu C.; Osgood H.; Wu G., CeO2-Modified α-MoO3 Nanorods as a Synergistic Support for Pt Nanoparticles with Enhanced COads Tolerance during Methanol Oxidation, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 19 (1), 330-339, 2017.

Students on this Project

  • Mengjie Chen (Ph.D.)
  • Anix Casimir (M.S.)
  • Kate Chen (M.E.)
  • Hannah Osgood (undergraduate)
  • William Kellogg (undergraduate)
  • Hengyu Pan (undergraduate)