Professor Ernst Rank and the TUM-IAS team invite the scientists of TUM and their guests for coffee each Wednesday. Just come over to the TUM-IAS after lunch between 1:00–2:00 pm and have a coffee with us, meet other scientists and listen to a short talk (10-15 mins) on a recent major TUM publication or issue – aimed specifically at a non-expert audience.
On January 15, Prof. Dr. Roland Fischer (Chair for Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry) will talk about “Activity of Fuel Cell Catalysts Doubled- Modelling leads to the Optimum Size for Platinum Fuel Cell Catalysts“. An interdisciplinary research team at the TUM has built platinum nanoparticles for catalysis in fuel cells, where hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce water, generating electricity in the process. Sophisticated catalysts at the electrodes are required in order to optimize this conversion. Platinum plays a central role in the oxygen-reduction reaction. Searching for an ideal solution, the team created a computer model of the complete system. The central question: How small can a cluster of platinum atoms be and still have a highly active catalytic effect? Combining theoretical capabilities in modelling, joint discussions and physical and chemical knowledge gained from experiments ultimately resulted in a model showing how catalysts can be designed with the ideal form, size and size distribution of the components involved. The new size-optimized catalysts are twice as good as the best process commercially available today.
RELEVANT PUBLICATION
Optimizing the Size of Platinum Nanoparticles for Enhanced Mass Activity in the Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction Reaction, Batyr Garlyyev, Kathrin Kratzl, Marlon Rück, Jan Michalicka, Johannes Fichtner, Jan M. Macak, Tim Kratky, Sebastian Günther, Mirza Cokoja, Aliaksandr S. Bandarenka, Alessio Gagliardi and Roland A. Fischer, Angewandte Chemie May 3, 2019 – DOI: 10.1002/anie.201904492.
THE WEDNESDAY COFFEE TALKS AT THE TUM-IAS
Would you like to receive regular updates on our Wednesday Coffee Talk? Just contact us via the contact formular.
An overview on upcoming and past Wednesday Coffee Talks can be found at the Wednesday Coffee Talk Overview.