Adjusting the Operational Potential Window as a Tool for Prolonging the Durability of Carbon-Supported Pt-Alloy Nanoparticles as Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalysts.

A current trend in the investigation of state-of-the-art Pt-alloys as proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) electrocatalysts is to study their long-term stability as a bottleneck for their full commercialization. Although many parameters have been appropriately addressed, there are still certain issues that must be considered. Here, the stability of an experimental Pt-Co/C electrocatalyst is investigated by high-temperature accelerated degradation tests (HT-ADTs) in a high-temperature disk electrode (HT-DE) setup, allowing the imitation of close-to-real operational conditions in terms of temperature (60 °C).

Computational fluid dynamic simulations of temperature, cryoconcentration, and stress time during large-scale freezing and thawing of monoclonal antibody solutions.

Purpose: Large-scale freezing and thawing experiments of monoclonal antibody (mAb) solutions are time and material consuming. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modeling of temperature, solute composition as well as the stress time, defined as the time between start of freezing and reaching T' at any point in the container, could be a promising approach to ease and speed up process development.

Methods: Temperature profiles at six positions were recorded during freezing and thawing of a 2L rectangular bottle and compared to CFD simulations via OpenFOAM.

Resolving the nanoparticles' structure-property relationships at the atomic level: a study of Pt-based electrocatalysts.

Achieving highly active and stable oxygen reduction reaction performance at low platinum-group-metal loadings remains one of the grand challenges in the proton-exchange membrane fuel cells community. Currently, state-of-the-art electrocatalysts are high-surface-area-carbon-supported nanoalloys of platinum with different transition metals (Cu, Ni, Fe, and Co). Despite years of focused research, the established structure-property relationships are not able to explain and predict the electrochemical performance and behavior of the real nanoparticulate systems.

Atomically Resolved Anisotropic Electrochemical Shaping of Nano-electrocatalyst.

Catalytic properties of advanced functional materials are determined by their surface and near-surface atomic structure, composition, morphology, defects, compressive and tensile stresses, etc; also known as a structure-activity relationship. The catalysts structural properties are dynamically changing as they perform via complex phenomenon dependent on the reaction conditions. In turn, not just the structural features but even more importantly, catalytic characteristics of nanoparticles get altered.