Thesis work for Bachelor, Master or Diploma
In order to increase the flexibility of renewable energies and improve their integration into existing energy networks, efficient intermediate storage is necessary. Hydrogen as the energy carrier of the future has a high potential. It is produced in high purity in a water electrolysis cell. Precious metal-free catalysts are of particular interest for an economic use of this technology.
This thesis is about the synthesis and characterization of supported OER catalyst in a PEM electrolyzer.
During the thesis, supported catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction with different loadings will be synthesized, optimized and characterized physically, as well as electrochemically.
In a first step, the support material will be synthesized by means of a wet chemical nanoparticle synthesis already known at the institute. In the following step, Ir nanoparticles will be deposited on the support material in different loadings by a hydrothermal synthesis. Physical characterization is to be carried out by e.g. XRD and BET surface area determination. For the electrochemical characterization, measurements on the rotating disk electrode as well as single cell measurements will be performed. In particular, the stability under continuous load on a potential is to be investigated.
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