High Throughput Experimental and Theoretical Predictive Screening of Materials − A Comparative Study of Search Strategies for New Fuel Cell Anode Catalysts

A comparative study of experimental and theoretical combinatorial and high-throughput screening methods for the development of novel materials is presented. Both methods were applied to the development of new anode fuel cell alloy catalysts with improved CO tolerance. Combinatorial experimental electrocatalysis was performed on a 64-element electrode array. Sputter-deposited ternary thin-film electrocatalysts of composition PtRuM (M = Co,Ni,W) were screened in parallel for their methanol oxidation activity, and their individual geometric and specific chronoamperometric current density were monitored and evaluated against standard PtRu catalysts. Density functional theory calculations of a variety of model ternary PtRuM alloy catalysts yielded detailed adsorption energies and activation barriers. Feeding these thermodynamic and kinetic data into a simple micro kinetic model for the CO electro oxidation reaction, the relative activities of a number of PtRuM ternary alloys were calculated. The experimental and theoretical computational results reveal very similar trends in electrocatalytic activity as a function of alloy composition; they also point at similar ternary PtRuM alloys as candidates for improved anode catalysts for low-temperature fuel cells.