[CCoE Notice] Seminar Announcement * January 31, 2011 * Radoslav R. Adzic * Brookhaven National Laboratory

[Lewis, Lindsay R]

***** Seminar *****
Center for Integrated Bio and Nano Systems
Houston Chapter of IEEE Nanotechnology Council and Houston Chapter of IEEE Magnetics Society
Monday, January 31, 11am
Room: W205-D3 (Engineering Building 2)

Recent Developments in Platinum Monolayer Electrocatalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction and the Electrocatalysts for Ethanol Oxidation to CO2

Radoslav R. Adzic

Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973 US

The last decade has seen considerable advances made in fuel cell electrocatalysis, yielding improved electrocatalysts and increasing our understanding of the kinetics of the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR).  However, the principal problem of slow ORR kinetics encountered even on platinum, the best elemental electrocatalyst, remains to be solved.  Consequent loss in efficiency of energy conversion devices based on oxygen cathodes and the need for high platinum content in corresponding electrocatalysts are the main obstacles that hamper the automotive applications of fuel cells. Over the last several years we inaugurated a new class of electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) that consist of a monolayer of Pt deposited on metal or alloy carbon-supported nanoparticles that can help in resolving these problems. Several unique properties of this class of electrocatalysts will be discussed including their suitability for sustainable fuel cells applications.

Recent developments will be illustrated by i) Electrocatalysts consisting of a metal monolayer positioned between the core and the Pt monolayer shell, or placed at the subsurface of the core to induce contraction of its top layer (second generation of core-shell nanoparticles), ii) Alloying the core with stability-inducing metals such as Au, iii) Nanowires and tetrahedral nanoparticles as the cores, iv) Performing scale-up syntheses and fuel cell tests under potential cycling conditions. Factors affecting the ORR activity of Pt monolayers and a novel mechanism facilitating their excellent stability revealed in fuel cell tests will be discussed.

New results obtained with the PtRhSnO2 ternary electrocatalyst capable of splitting C-C bond in ethanol and oxidizing it to CO2 will be described.

Bio:

Radoslav Adzic earned Ph.D. in chemistry in 1974 from the University of Belgrade. He remained at the University of Belgrade until 1992 as a professor and Director of the Institute of Electrochemistry. In 1992, he joined the Brookhaven National Laboratory as a senior research associate, rising to the position of chemist in 2001, and senior chemist in 2005. Dr. Adzic won the Annual Award of Belgrade for Natural Sciences in 1983, the Medal of the Serbian Chemical Society in 1997, Brookhaven Lab's Science and Technology Award in 2005, The Research Award of The Electrochemical Society's Energy Technology Division in 2007 and Department of Energy Research Award in 2008. He was elected as a correspondent member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1993, and he became a Fellow of The Electrochemical Society in 2005.

If you are interested in meeting Dr. Adzic, please send an e-mail to Dr. Stanko Brankovic (Stanko.Brankovic at mail.uh.edu<mailto:Stanko.Brankovic at mail.uh.edu>).






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://Bug.EGR.UH.EDU/pipermail/engi-dist/attachments/20110128/40fef8f6/attachment.html