Below is the text version for the "ElectroCat Lab Consortium Overview" webinar, held on April 30, 2018.
Adria Wilson, Fuel Cell Technologies Office
…answer the ones that we can. And after the webinar, all of the questions will be answered on the follow-up website. Next slide.
Okay. So. First I'm going to tell you what we're going to talk about, and then we'll talk about it. The webinar will touch on—briefly—on the organization of the consortium. Our current capability set. And we can go over briefly how we expect the FOA awardees to work with the consortium towards the end. Like I mentioned, we'll go over the capabilities, Debbie and Piotr will take care of that. And then we'll talk about that in the context of the FOA for this year. Next slide.
Okay. So. Our consortium currently has four national laboratories as part of the steering committee. The ElectroCat Consortium is co-led by Los Alamos and Argonne. And Los Alamos, Piotr Zelenay brings expertise in PGM-free catalysts into this. Debbie Myers from Argonne brings to the table high-throughput characterization capabilities and expertise. There we are. And then rounding out the consortium we have Karren More from Oak Ridge and K.C. Neyerlin from NREL. And then at the bottom here, we have our three points of contact at DOE within EERE and in the Fuel Cell Technologies Office. Myself, Simon Thompson, and Dimitrios Papageorgopoulos. Next slide.
This slide is really meant to tell you what the consortium is all about. You probably know this already. But we are focused as all of the Energy Materials Network consortia at DOE are, on a particular material problem, and are aiming to accelerate materials development in pursuit of a solution in an accelerated way. So, for ElectroCat, we're developing electrocatalysts. Electrocatalysts and catalysts more broadly are used for many, many things. As you can see here, highlighted in the orange box, we're very focused on fuel cell electric vehicles, light-duty vehicles in particular. And even more specifically on developing PGM-free catalysts for those fuel cell vehicles, in order to replace platinum and make them more cost competitive with alternatives. Next slide.
So PGM cathode materials are the current state of the art. We're looking to develop PGM-free catalysts through this consortium. So we've come up with targets, or specifically one target that is the analog for those systems. It's not put in terms of milligrams PGMs, since there is no PGMs, so we're looking at specific activity instead. And our target for the consortium's work is to get an activity of 44 milliamps per square centimeter at 0.9 millivolts, iR-free by 2025. So this table is older. It's from our MYRD&D plan at FCTO, which is currently being updated, but that target is now going to be towards 2025. Next slide.
And so to touch on the research priorities a little bit. We have a dual strategy within the consortium for doing research. One is materials discovery and development. In particular, we're focused on the oxygen reduction reaction. And we've been focused on PEM fuel cells. In our future, we may focus on alkaline membrane, or phosphoric acid fuel cells. We haven't gone into that work yet. And we're still very focused on PEMs [inaudible]. We're also focused on developing electrodes and MEAs that are compatible with PGM-free catalysts. We are starting to move into both electrode development and MEA development.
And then the other side of things is tool development. We have a few different modes of tool development listed out here. This is what we do with our core R&D. We develop the capabilities that you'll see later on in the presentation to make sure that they are useful with PGM-free materials. So that when you go to engage with those capabilities, they work for you. But to briefly go through this, we are working on optimizing atomic-scale and meso-scale models of that catalyst activity. High-throughput techniques for catalyst synthesis and characterization. And we're also focused on making our data output easily searchable and useful to the public, in pursuit of that overarching goal of facilitating accelerated materials development. Next slide.
Okay. So as an introduction to the FOA topics, I'm sure you've seen the FOA already. So this is a little bit of rehashing. The topic is basically calling for innovative concepts in early stage R&D. I'll wait for the slide to come back up. There we go. For high-performance, durable, PGM-free catalysts that also significantly reduce fuel cell costs with respect to the PGM-based state of the art. The quantitative goal here is to achieve 0.044 amps per square centimeter at 0.9 volts in an MEA by 2025 for a PEM fuel cell.
And then importantly, and the reason we're having this webinar, is that we're expecting projects to leverage some of the capabilities that we have within ElectroCat and to state as much in the application. It's still subject to negotiation upon selection for awards. But we would like to see you choose a few that complement your proposed applications. And here is a list of some of the capabilities we have. Debbie and Piotr will go into that in more detail in just a moment. We also have some go/no-go decision points that will stage gate the progress of the awardee's work. Next slide.
Okay. And here I will hand it over to Debbie Myers to talk more about the capabilities that we have in the consortium. Debbie, are you on? Can anyone else hear Debbie, or is it just me?
Debbie Myers, Argonne National Laboratory
Hello?
Adria Wilson
Okay, there you are.
Debbie Myers
Okay. To start over. So approximately two years ago, when ElectroCat kicked off, one of the first tasks that the steering committee performed was to reach out to the various national laboratories and ask for capabilities submissions that could be applicable to developing PGM-free catalysts and electrodes and membrane electrode assemblies and fuel cells. As part of that process, we then down-selected approximately 30 capabilities from four different national laboratories that have already been introduced. And we categorized them into various topical areas, being synthesis, processing, and manufacturing; characterization and testing; and computation, modeling, and data management, as you see on this slide.
So if you visit the ElectroCat website with the address listed on the top right of this slide, you'll see the webpage that's copied here come up with these various categorizations of these capabilities. So within each one of those capabilities, then you'll be able to click on a link, and then that link will take you to the submitted capabilities by the national laboratories, and give you a description of those capabilities, how they've been applied to PGM-free catalysis, and some contact information for the capability expert at the national laboratory. So now I'd like to get into a little bit more detail with Piotr on what these capabilities are. Next slide, please.
So, in the first category, which is synthesis, processing, and manufacturing capabilities, we have three different categories. High surface area catalysts, model systems synthesis, and fuel cell fabrication. So, within the high surface area catalyst area, we have PGM catalyst synthesis. This is by Los Alamos. And this is drawing on their numerous years and expertise in synthesizing PGM-free catalysts for various projects.
And these are using chemical synthesis routes, both low-temperature and high-temperature synthesis routes, ultrasonic spray pyrolysis, polymer assisted deposition routes for bulk powders and thin films, electrospinning, freeze drying, high energy ball-milling, and there's numerous capabilities at Los Alamos for making powder catalysts, and in addition to making the catalyst also characterizing the catalyst by various techniques like ICP mass spec, XRF, core symmetry, and ICP mass spec fitted with laser ablation, and so forth. So, I encourage you to visit the site, and learn all about those capabilities from Los Alamos.
So, the second one in this category is high-throughput synthesis of PGM-free catalysts and electrodes. This is a capability at Argonne National Laboratory. And this draws on the equipment and capabilities within our high-throughput research lab. So this allows us to quickly synthesize catalysts and in some capabilities that were developed as part of ElectroCat we can also test their oxygen reduction activity in a high-throughput fashion using multi-channel flow double electrode cells. And also measure their performance in a fuel cell environment using a combinatorial fuel cell [inaudible].
So in the middle category, model systems synthesis, we have a capability from Los Alamos National Laboratory, and this draws on something called ENABLE—Energetic Neutral Atom Beam Lithography & Epitaxy. This is a controlled method for introducing various heteroatom dopants into a variety of substrates using a high intensity source for producing these reactive metals. So, I also encourage you to take a look at that capability. The final category on this slide would be fuel cell fabrication. So, the first one is a capability from Los Alamos. They have many years of experience in synthesizing or fabricating membrane electrode assemblies based on PGM-free catalysts and a variety of techniques for doing that from hand painting to spray ultrasonic spraying and so forth.
The second one is high-throughput synthesis of PGM-free catalysts and electrodes. So, this is using that same robotic system that I just discussed in order to make the electrocatalyst inks and deposit those electrocatalyst inks in—whether it be a 5-square-centimeter cell or in a 25-electrode configuration for the combinatorial fuel cell. The third one there is a submission from NREL. And this is drawing on their capabilities in manufacturing. And this is various approaches to make PGM-free electrodes using ultrasonic spraying, roll-to-roll coating, and various other techniques. The final one is one that draws on Oak Ridge's experience in battery manufacturing. And so this is manufacturing porous electrodes, where they also use a roll-to-roll system, and this is part of the Advanced Manufacturing Office’s roll-to-roll consortium as well. Next slide, please.
So again, characterization and testing capabilities have been categorized in three different areas. The one on the left is materials characterization. Again, Los Alamos has a variety of techniques for synthesizing PGM-free catalysts, and various analytical characterization techniques that I mentioned on the previous slide. And also, in addition to that, they have electrochemical and fuel cell testing capabilities, such as rotating disc electrode apparatuses, and fuel cell test scans, and so forth. So the second submission there is x-ray characterization techniques by Los Alamos. And this is—includes x-ray diffraction and micro-x-ray tomography. The third one is x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, from Oak Ridge.
The next one is electron tomography from Oak Ridge. And this is taking small pieces of electrocatalysts or electrodes and determining the 3D structure of those materials. The next one is the analytical electron microscopy. I think many of you are aware of Karren More's capabilities and Oak Ridge's capabilities in high resolution electron microscopy of catalyst materials and electrodes as well. The next one is in situ electron microscopy. So recently they've developed a capability to perform electron microscopy during pyrolysis of the precursors, proving to be very interesting in terms of the evolution of the structure of the catalyst materials as a function of temperature. The next one is structure/composition-function relationships and active sites. This is from Vojislav Stamenkovic’s group at Argonne.
And this is coupling a rotating disc electrode apparatus with an online ICP mass spec. So that the oxygen reduction activity of the materials can be measured simultaneously with aggregation of the active site components. The next one is in situ and operando atomic nano and microstructure characterization. So this encompasses the capabilities at the advanced photon source here at Argonne. This is synchrotron x-ray spectroscopies scattering and tomography to determine the atomic structure of the absorbing materials such as iron or cobalt to determine the atomic structure, the particle size, and the agglomerate structure using x-ray scattering. And, finally, using nanotomography to determine the electrode structure at a resolution of approximately 20 nanometers.
Next one is combinatorial hydrodynamic screening. I touched on that previously. And that we've developed a multi-channel flow double electrode cell to measure the oxygen reduction activity of three catalyst materials, or I'm sorry four catalyst materials simultaneously. And the last one is high-throughput characterization of PGM-free catalysts and electrodes, and again this is…
[crosstalk]
…combinatorial fuel cell hardware at Argonne. At this point, I'm going to hand it over to Piotr Zelenay, from Los Alamos, to discuss the rest of the capabilities.
Piotr Zelenay, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Hello, can you hear me?
Debbie Myers
We can.
Piotr Zelenay
Hello?
Adria Wilson
You're good.
Piotr Zelenay
All right. So, welcome, everybody. I am taking over at the point of electrode and cell characterization, starting with the first bullet on that blue background. And pertaining to operando differential cell measurements of electrochemical kinetics and transport. That capability has been developed at NREL. And has proven to be a powerful tool for insight into kinetics of oxygen reduction reactions, especially the function of, for example, [inaudible] pressure of oxygen. Then we have a PGM-free catalyst synthesis, analytical characterization, and electrochemical and fuel cell testing at LANL. And this draws upon our multiyear experience in developing and characterizing PGM-free catalysts of different types.
Both by number of analytical characterization techniques, and especially by electrochemical and especially fuel cell testing at LANL. Then we have electrode microstructure characterization and simulation at Argonne. This one provides a direct insight through x-ray into the electrode structure, including PGM-free catalysts. Then we have electron tomography at Oak Ridge together with analytical electron microscopy that has proven especially useful over the past few years in determining the morphology, and also the composition, including a composition at an atomic level of non-precious metal catalysts.
Then we move on to in situ and operando atomic, nano, and microstructure characterization at Argonne, which draws upon all the experience and capabilities as a photon source at Argonne which has been used a lot over the past couple of years, since the inception of ElectroCat. Segmented cell system for R&D combinatorial studies, NREL. So NREL has developed segmented cell system, which can be used for—not only for R&D combinatorial, but also for the determination of compositions of current density distribution. And performance of individual cell fragments of a larger fuel cell. At Los Alamos we've developed methods tied to durability measurements of precious, not precious metal-free catalysts, and through the determination of fluoride and carbon dioxide emissions, and also emission of the transition metals from operating cathodes in the fuel cell, and that has been relatively popular recently.
Then we have also a segmented cell and neutron imaging at Los Alamos. This is in addition to the main segmented cell capability at NREL. And also in the context of neutron imagining we have the cell developed, which can be used, for example, at NIST, for neutron characterization. In the last—in the electrode and cell characterization category, it's high-throughput characterization of PGM-free catalysts and electrodes. This is using techniques that Debbie has already mentioned twice. Which allows for quick characterization of the performance of PGM-free catalysts in actual PGM-free electrodes.
Now at the very bottom of the slide, you can see model systems characterization. This is again the starting with controlled functionalization of model catalysts. This is the ENABLE technique Debbie mentioned before, which allows for functionalization with nitrogen in particular, leading up to different nitrogen functionalities in PGM-free catalysts. At Oak Ridge, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is available to a whole different slate of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques of it, at Oak Ridge. Next slide, please.
All right. So. Now we are moving to computation modeling and data management. On the left-hand side, we have catalyst modeling, under multiscale modeling and rational design of PGM-free catalysts, which is a really probably less multiscale in this case than at an atomic level [inaudible] kind of modeling carried out by Ed Holby here at Los Alamos. Which includes both the characterization of the activity or prediction of catalytic activity, as well as durability of various functional groups in PGM-free catalysts.
In the middle we have electrode/fuel cell performance modeling. And that is being done predominately by Rajesh Ahluwalia at Argonne National Lab, which includes—modeling kinetic and transport properties in PGM-free electrodes, and the first bullet, electrode microstructure characterization and simulation—using a variety of techniques, which provide insight into the agglomerate size, particle size, [inaudible] size distribution. And calculation of predicted mass transport limitations in PGM-free catalyst [inaudible].
On the right-hand side, we are looking at data management capabilities, which have been accumulated predominately at NREL and Argonne. At NREL, we have experimental and computational materials data infrastructure. The data hub is shown actually in the schematic diagram at the bottom right of the slide. Which shows how the data is accumulated in master data, and database, and then made available at different levels of access to the consortium. Next slide, please.
When you reach the website, the capability website, you will see a list of different capabilities. And there is one example shown in this slide, in materials characterization, entitled PGM-free catalyst synthesis, analytical characterization, electrochemical and fuel cell testing. And there is also an image of analytical electron microscopy on the right-hand side, from Oak Ridge. This is what they look like, typically. And there is a title, there is a laboratory listed. The title of the capability. And then the capability expert, which is the person you should contact with specific questions about the capability. And if you use the capability, you will be working with that person going forward.
And then there is information on the class of capability. For example, for microscopy characterization—and so description. Capability bounds, if any. Then unique aspects of the capability, especially in the context of PGM-free electrocatalysts. To what degree the capability—on what conditions a capability is available. And then some references, benefits stated in those cases, and quite often there is at least one graphic illustration of what the capability is about. With that, I'm going to hand it over back to Adria for the last two slides. Thanks.
Adria Wilson
Next slide, please. Okay. So. Here's just a bit of information about applying to the FOA. Nothing out of the ordinary here. We have the FOA URL. If you have specific questions about capabilities—uh-oh, lost it again. There we go. Specific questions about capabilities, you can reach out to the ElectroCat Consortium's concierge. That's a mouthful. At contact@electrocat.org. So if you have particular questions about the FOA, you should reach out to FCTOFOA@ee.doe.gov before concept papers are due on May 7. And this note at the bottom, it's an important one, and asks that if you do intend to respond to the FOA, that you hold off at this time from reaching out directly to the steering committee about capabilities. Again, that's the purpose of this webinar, to generally answer any questions about the capabilities. But at this point it's a conflict of interest to discuss with the steering committee about different proposals.
[crosstalk]
What's that? Maybe everyone can mute themselves, if you haven’t already. But last slide. Okay. This is the thank you slide. Thank you for your attention. If you have any questions, now is the time to type them up and send them in. Again, here are all of our email addresses. And the consortium's website, as well as the office's website. So, yeah.
I guess at this point we can answer questions that have come in. I have one. And it's specifically about the FOA. The question was—what elements are you looking for and proposing to work with the consortium? Without going into specifics of the question, I think what it's asking is how to contextualize how the capabilities will work with your application, and that is up to you. We're looking for, as always, a thoughtful, well-written proposal. And we'd like to see that you've thought about how you would work with the different capabilities within the consortium. And that you laid that out explicitly in your application. And as we did say, it can be about any part of catalyst or cathode electrode development for PGM-free materials in PEM fuel cells.
Any other questions? Okay. So another question is about agreements. Are there any level of prior agreements needed between ElectroCat and the applicant? The answer is no. But as specified in the FOA you will be required to sign a standardized NDA, and maybe required to sign a standardized CRADA, or material transfer agreement. We have not used the latter two in the past, but we reserve our right to do so. So we'll—the short answer to that question is that will be taken care of once awardees are selected, and it's not expected at this time. Okay.
And so another question we just got in. There were more model catalyst synthesis capabilities listed on the website. And in the AMR 2017 support. Are those still available? The short answer is—if it's on the website, then it should still be available. Debbie, or Piotr, you can correct me if I'm wrong on that one. This may not be totally exhaustive, what we just showed you.
Debbie Myers
If they're referring to the capabilities from last year, there were a few that were discontinued. So, there was another model system capability that was discontinued, and it was presented last year at the annual merit review.
Adria Wilson
Right. So, some of the capabilities of—I mentioned at the beginning we do some development work on that one. So they change with time. Okay. So, one more question.
Miguel Garcia
Hello? Can you hear me?
Adria Wilson
Yes. We're submitting questions through the chat box. So if you have a question, please type it up and send it in.
Miguel Garcia
Hi, hello. This is Miguel Garcia from Mexico. My specific question is we are a small group of researchers in fuel cell area. And my specific question is that if we can participate for looking for funding for our research activities, because we are from Mexico. Not from the USA. Do you hear me?
Adria Wilson
Yes. If you could type up your question as well, that would be helpful to keep track. But there are restrictions in the FOA. And I would encourage you to read the FOA to determine whether or not your project team is responsive to the FOA. And you can find the FOA on our website. Okay. So, let me see. We mentioned that ORR catalysts for alkaline membrane fuel cells is a future interest, but that's specifically excluded from the FOA, could you elaborate? Those areas not of interest are elaborated in the FOA text, after the topic description. But just me talking, I will say that we have focused on PEM fuel cell catalysts, and that is our current consortium focus at this time. I couldn't tell you when we're expanding our scope at this time.
Okay, next question. Are you interested in supporting battery electrode development work? Not at this time. We're focused on fuel cells. Okay. So those are the only questions I'm seeing right now. If you have any that you'd like to submit, now is the time, as I said.
Okay. Well. I'll give it like 30 more seconds, just in case somebody's typing. But I will say, if you do have questions after the fact, you're absolutely welcome to send them to FCTOFOA, that email address. And we will answer them and then post those answers as well as the answers to these questions on the FOA website, for people to use for reference as they complete their concept papers.
One final reminder, concept papers are due May 7. And you must submit the concept paper in order to apply to the FOA. Does anybody else have anything they wanted to say, any of the presenters, before we close out here?
Piotr Zelenay
I thought I saw one more question, Adria, but it was just…
Adria Wilson
Oh, okay. One more. Basically, are there other organizations within EERE that would want to work with batteries? I'm interpreting that as are there other consortia that work on batteries. And I think that the answer is no at this time. But there is battery research that is being done at EERE, specifically in the VTO is one that I can think of. Another question—can this be a single PI project? There's nothing explicitly not allowing that. We got a bunch of questions. Does an applicant need to establish specific availability on any given capability before the paper is submitted, or can we refer to them generically? No, you do not need to establish availability before submitting an application. We will determine that post-award.
One question that just came in—can I approach individual labs for support in characterization. You can—what you can do in the application is cite different labs that you would like to leverage for support and characterization, but at this time we ask that you do not directly approach them to talk about the FOA. Again, a reminder to everyone on the phone. If you have a question, please type it into the chat box and send it to Eric Parker.
Okay. All right. Debbie or Piotr, did you see anything else come up?
Piotr Zelenay
I've seen quite a few, but they just show up very briefly, and I cannot even read them.
Debbie Myers
So the ones I've seen have been relating to battery research…
Piotr Zelenay
Batteries, yeah, uh-huh.
Adria Wilson
Okay. I think that's out of the scope of our presentation here today. So. Okay. Well. I think we'll call it here. Thank you all for your attention. I hope this was useful. The webinar will be posted soon. Before the concept papers are due, certainly. And if you do have any further questions on the FOA, you can reach out, like I said, to the FCTOFOA email address. Okay. Thank you.
Piotr Zelenay
Thank you.
[End of Audio]