Nico Röttcher

Alumni

Facing the challenge of climate change, hydrogen has been identified as promising energy storage and with it fuel cells as a crucial technology for an efficient release of energy. Recent advancements in the research of alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC) and the possibility of using cheaper platinum group metal-free electrocatalysts make them a promising alternative to currently commercialized fuel cells. To investigate the performance of electrocatalysts under realistic potentials a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) setup can be used which combines the benefits of conventionally used thin-film rotating disk electrode (TF-RDE) and membrane electrode assembly (MEA).

In my master thesis, I will focus on the investigation of the performance of state-of-the-art electrocatalysts for the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) using a GDE setup. Additional electrochemical methods will be applied to gain mechanistic insights under realistic fuel cell potentials.