Athira Lekshmi Mohandas Sandhya
- Department
- Department of Surface and Plasma Science
- athira.mohandas@matfyz.cuni.cz
Polymer membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are on the verge of revolutionizing the field of electricity. In addition to activity and cost, catalyst stability is one of the key issues for their successful commercialization. Due to the corrosive conditions of the PEMFC cathode, catalyst degradation is a common problem and leads to deterioration of fuel cell performance during their use. However, complete knowledge of the evolution of the structure and composition of catalysts under fuel cell operating conditions remains very scarce.
In this doctoral thesis, catalysts will be prepared by magnetron sputtering. Simulation of fuel cell operating conditions will be performed in an electrochemical cell and the behavior of the catalytic layers will be investigated in-situ using electrochemical atomic force microscopy (EC-AFM) and rotating disk electrode (RDE). For additional characterization, ex-situ methods of electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) will also be used. In parallel, experiments will be performed on the SAXS optical path at the Elettra synchrotron in Italy using in situ small-angle scattering (GISAXS) using a specially designed electrochemical cell.
The aim of the work will be to monitor the connections between the morphological, structural and compositional degradation of the catalyst and the operating conditions of fuel cells. The work involves a two-month stay in Italy at the Elettra synchrotron every year.