Dario Dekel, Professor of Chemistry at Technion Institute's Wolfson Department of Chemical Engineering, will deliver a seminar entitled, "Stability Challenges of Anion-Exchange Membranes for Electrochemical Applications." Hosted by Mark Tuckerman.
For more information about Dario Dekel, click here.
Abstract: Amazing progress has been achieved in the past five years of intensive research on Anion-Exchange Membrane (AEM) Fuel Cells (AEMFCs) and Water Electrolyzers (AEMWEs), bringing the AEM-based technologies closer to the required levels for practical applications. In material-related space, recent studies reported novel techniques for characterizing AEMs [1] and robust AEMs with ultra-high hydroxide conductivities of 300 mS/cm [2]. In addition, new ionomeric materials and functional groups with increasing stability were introduced [3-5], and better Pt-free and PGM-free promising catalysts were developed [6-10]. On the fuel cells front, new AEMFCs based on critical raw materials (CRM)-free catalysts were successfully demonstrated [11-12], cells with record high power density outputs were obtained [13], materials able to operate under high-temperature AEMFC (HT-AEMFC) operation mode were first reported [14], simulated materials and conditions to achieve AEMFC lifetime of 5,000-15,000 hours were theoretically demonstrated for the first time [15-16], and cell lifetime of 2,000 hours of continuous operation was already experimentally proven [17]. Initial studies have just started in the water electrolyzer front, but the technology already showed outstanding results with a promising future [18]. Altogether, the research community has made impressive progress in such a short time. Having said that, we are not yet there; several remaining challenges should still be overcome to allow AEM-based technologies to be viable alternatives to mainstream \ PEM-based technologies. In this talk, I will present and discuss the current main challenge of AEMs – the lack of alkaline stability, and, if time allows, share our recent developments aiming to overcome this crucial challenge.
References:
1. “Practical ex-situ technique to measure the chemical stability of anion-exchange membranes under conditions simulating the fuel
cell environment”; Müller et al., ACS Mater. Lett. 2, 168-173, 2020.
2. “Measuring the true hydroxide conductivity of AEMs”; Zhegur-Khais et al., J. Membrane Sci. 612, 118461, 2020.
3. “Poly(bis-arylimidazoliums) possessing high hydroxide ion exchange capacity and high alkaline stability”; Fan et al., Nature
Commun. 10(1), 2306, 2019.
4. "Increasing the alkaline stability of N,N-diaryl-carbazolium salts using substituent electronic effects"; Gjineci et al., ACS Appl.
Mater. Interfaces 12, 44, 49617-49625, 2020.
5. “The reaction mechanism between tetraarylammonium salts and hydroxide”; European J. Organic Chemistry 21, 3161-3168, 2020.
6. “Porphyrin aerogel catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in AEMFCs”; Zion et al., Adv. Functional Mater., 2021.
7. Peng et al., Angewandte Chemie International Edition 58, 4, 1046-1051, 2019.
8. “Effect of the synthetic method on the properties of Ni-based hydrogen oxidation catalysts”; ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2021.
9. “Synthesis of CeO x -decorated Pd/C catalysts by controlled surface reactions for...”; Adv. Functional Mater. 30, 2002087, 2020.
10. “Transition-metal and nitrogen-doped carbide-derived carbon/CNT composites as cathode catalysts...”; ACS Catal. 11, 1920, 2021.
11. “Pt-free and PGM-free catalysts for anion exchange membrane fuel cells”; Truong et al., Energies 13, 582, 2020.
12. “An anion-exchange membrane fuel cell containing only abundant and affordable materials”; Energy Technology, 2000909, 2021.
13. Huang et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. 166, 10, F637, 2019.
14. “A high-temperature anion-exchange membrane fuel cell”; Douglin et al., J. Power Sources Advances 5, 100023, 2020.
15. “Predicting performance stability in anion exchange membrane fuel cells”; Dekel et al., J. Power Sources, 420, 118-123, 2019.
16. “Quantifying the critical effect of water diffusivity in AEMs for fuel cell applications”; Yassin et al., J Membr. Sci. 608, 118206, 2020.
17. Hassan et al., Adv. Energy Mater., 2001986, 2020.
18. „Water Electrolysis: From textbook knowledge to the latest scientific strategies and industrial developments”; Chatenet et al.,
Chemical Soc. Reviews 51, 4583-4762, 2022.