The present disclosure provides approaches for increasing the adhesion of a catalyst ink on a substrate, use of binders within an electrode ink to enhance coating uniformity, incorporating pore-forming agents within an electrode ink, approaches for growing an electrode on a reinforcement layer, increasing the electrochemically active surface area, and incorporation of certain materials in an electrode ink. The present disclosure also relates to electrodes for electrochemical cells, including area-scalable electrodes designed for high-speed manufacturing. The materials, devices and methods described herein may apply to either one or both of an anode or a cathode electrode for an electrochemical cell.

A fuel cell including a catalyst layer configured to generate liquid water in response to a reactant being in contact therewith. The fuel cell includes a microporous layer having a first region with a first pore size and a second region disposed adjacent to the first region having a second pore size. The first pore size being greater than the second pore size. The microporous layer being configured to transfer the liquid water away from the catalyst layer, such that the liquid water from the catalyst layer enters the first region in response to a capillary pressure of the liquid water being greater than a first capillary pressure. The liquid water enters the second region in response to a capillary pressure of the liquid water being greater than a second capillary pressure. The first capillary pressure being different from the second capillary pressure.

The present invention is to provide fine catalyst particles to which sulfate ions are less likely to be adsorbed, and a carbon-supported catalyst to which sulfate ions are less likely to be adsorbed. Disclosed is a method for producing fine catalyst particles comprising a fine palladium-containing particle and a platinum-containing outermost layer covering at least part of the fine palladium-containing particle, wherein the method comprises: a copper covering step of covering at least part of the fine palladium-containing particle with copper by preparing a second dispersion by mixing a first dispersion comprising fine palladium-containing particles being dispersed in an acid solution with a copper-containing solution, and applying a potential that is nobler than the oxidation reduction potential of copper to the fine palladium-containing particles in the second dispersion, and a platinum covering step of covering at least part of the fine palladium-containing particle with platinum by substituting the copper covering at least part of the fine palladium-containing particle with platinum by mixing the second dispersion and a platinum-containing solution after the copper covering step, with applying a constant potential that is in a range between a potential that is nobler than the oxidation reduction potential of copper and a potential that is less than the oxidation reduction potential of platinum, to the fine palladium-containing particles.

A catalyst electrode including a metal layer and a catalyst layer formed on the metal layer is provided. The catalyst layer includes iridium and palladium. A membrane electrode assembly and a method for manufacturing a catalyst electrode are also provided.

A method for constructing a starch fuel cell with an anode belongs to the field of fuel cells. The method includes using a PdNFs/FeNPs/MFC electrode as a working electrode, an Ag/AgCl electrode as a reference electrode, and a platinum wire as an auxiliary electrode to form a three-electrode system. The method includes placing the three-electrode system in a starch solution and a supporting electrolyte; setting the potential as 0.2 to 1.3V. The method includes recording the cyclic voltammetry curves of the starch with concentrations of 1 mmol/L, 3 mmol/L, 5 mmol/L, 7 mmol/L, and 10 mmol/L. The method includes analyzing the control process of the electrode electrocatalytic oxidization of the starch solution by the standard curve method. The present fuel cell can be used to manufacture portable power banks, and can be used in power plants, electric vehicles and other fields.

Multi-cell electrochemical reaction cell structure for a flow battery or fuel cell having a plurality of cells electrically connected in series or parallel. A first housing has a pair of mating end plates assembled together, each forming a plurality of recesses in which one of the cells is received. One of the end plates has a projection along its perimeter and the other one of the end plates has a groove along its perimeter. The projection is configured to fit within the groove in a mating relationship to seal the housing when the end plates are engaged with each other. A second housing is a tubular shell in which a plurality of tubular flow cell units electrically connected in parallel are housed. Catholyte flows in the tubular flow cell units and anolyte flows in the tubular shell.

Oxygen evolution electrodes having high surface area plating and methods of forming such oxygen evolution electrodes are described. According to one aspect, an electrode for an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) may include a substrate including at least one surface and a layer of nickel coated on the at least one surface of the substrate. The at least one surface of the substrate has a first surface area, the layer of nickel has a second surface area, and a ratio of the second surface area to the first surface area is greater than about 10:1 and less than about 50:1.

An array includes a support substrate, surface structures protruding from a surface of the support substrate formed from or coated with a first material, a second material deposited on at least some of the surface structures such that the second material is in contact with the first material; and wherein the first material, the second material or the first and second material is conducting or semiconducting, and wherein the first and second material at least partially form a composite.

A method of improving catalyst accessibility of a carbon precursor includes exposing a graphene-based multi-layer precursor structure to a plurality of electrocatalyst clusters by applying voltage to accelerate the clusters towards the graphene-based multi-layer precursor structure to generate both mechanical defects in the graphene-based multi-layer precursor structure's surface and a near-uniform size population of deposited electrocatalyst at a near-uniform depth in the graphene-based multi-layer precursor structure.

Metastable alloys have recently emerged as high-performance catalysts, extending the toolbox of binary alloy materials that can be utilized to mediate electrocatalytic reactions. In particular, nanostructured metastable ordered intermetallic compounds are particularly challenging to synthesize. Here the present invention is directed to a method for synthesizing sub-15 nm metastable ordered intermetallic Pd31Bi12 nanoparticles at room temperature, in a single step, by pulsed electrochemical deposition onto high surface area carbon supports. The resulting Pd31Bi12 nanoparticles displays a 7 enhancement of the mass activity relative to Pt/C and a 4 enhancement relative to Pd/C for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The high performance of Pd31Bi12 nanoparticles is demonstrated to arise from reduced oxygen binding caused by alloying of Pd with Bi. The isolation of Pd-sites from each other facilitate methanol tolerant ORR behavior.