Cooperative Agreement DEEE0010750

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) awarded a $2,942,758 Cooperative Agreement under the Renewable Energy Research and Development (CFDA 81.087) program to The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF SUNY) to develop highly active and durable platinum-based cathode electrocatalysts, supports, and membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for heavy-duty vehicle fuel cell applications.

Key products and services to be delivered through this project include:

• Designing highly ordered ternary platinum group metal nanoparticles less than 4 nanometers with enhanced intrinsic oxygen reduction reaction activity and stability
• Developing novel catalyst supports, including engineered carbon, oxide, and carbon/oxide composites, to enhance the performance and durability of the ternary intermetallic catalysts
• Incorporating effective reactive oxygen species scavengers to eliminate oxidative radicals and by-products, achieving long-term MEA stability
• Fabricating scalable MEAs over 50 cm2 at a low platinum group metal loading of 0.3 mg/cm2, maintaining over 1.07 A/cm2 at 0.7 V and 2.5 kW/gPGM power density after 25,000 hours of operation

The project team includes the University at Buffalo, Washington University in St. Louis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Ballard Power Systems Inc. as sub-awardees.