Novel catalyst for the anode reaction in water electrolysis were developped during the first periodi. Libraries of multimetallic oxides of Earth-abundant metals where evaluated. Novel catalysts for the cathode of fuel cells were also developped, and an iron-based catalyst reached the internal target of CREATE. Regarding development of catalysts for the hydrogen evolution and hydrogen oxidation reactions, two approaches have been pursued, one without any PGM elements , and another with low PGM content. In the frame of this project, sufficient electrocatalytic activity was reached only with catalysts based on low-platinum content.
In the work package on ionomer and membrane preparation, a novel ex-situ durability protocol was established that highlighted the importance of water. Novel ionomer morphologies were also investigated, that showed high performance in electrochemical cells compared to the previously existing morphologies.
During the second period, two important milestones were achieved, MS1, anion exchange membrane with alkaline stability at 60°C > 400 h and anion exchange ionomer conductivity > 3 S m-1, and MS2, Novel bipolar membrane designed for electrolyzer with resistivity < 0.3 Ω cm2 and improved water transport to the anion-cation junction.
The second period saw also the successful replacement of iridium at the anode of anion - exchange membrane electrolyzers by Ni-Fe, and replacement of Pt at the cathode of fuel cell by Fe.
During the last period of the project, the fabrication of membrane-electrode-assembly and operating conditions of the electrochemical cells were optimized . Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (AEMFC) with a Fe-N-C cathode free of Critical Raw Materials (CRM) and paired with an anode with low loading of Platinum Group Metals (PGM) was developed. The optimized AEMFC achieved a cell voltage of 0.69 V at 0.5 A·cm-2 with air feed at the cathode, with a total PGM content of only 125 µg cm-2.This performance is only 10 mV below the challenging cell voltage targeted in the project under those condiitons. This result is above the 2021 state-of-the-art in the field, with anode PGM loading of typically 0.6 mg cm-2 used for achieving similar performance.
AEM electrolyzer (AEMEL) with NiFe oxide CRM-free anode and low-CRM cathode was developed. The optimized AEMEL-1 achieved a cell voltage of 1.85 V at 0.5 A·cm-2 at 45 °C, with a total PGM content of only 34 µg PtRu cm-2. A second optimized electrolyser cell (AEMEL-2) with slightly higher PGM content of 90 ug PtRu cm-2 at the cathode reached 1.76 V cell voltage at 0.5 A·cm-2, only 60 mV above the challenging cell voltage targeted.
The results obtained in CREATE have led to more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, and an international workshop on fuel cells and electorlyzers was organized in 2019 (www.efcd2019.eu). Three newsletters were disseminated, and numerous oral presentations given by the project partners.
Overall, the demonstration of substitutes to CRM-based catalysts in fuel cell or electrolyzer devices has been achieved, with high initial performance demonstrated when substituting Ir or Ru from AEMEL anode with Ni-Fe anode, while Pt was substituted by Fe at the cathode of AEMFC.
