Metal oxides aerogels for energy applications: fuel cells, water splitting
Résumé
The foreseen depletion of conventional energy resources coupled to the greenhouse gases emissions is urging the scientific community to find energy alternatives. Hydrogen will represent a credible alternative in the future, provided that it can be produced and converted without any impact on the environment. Water splitting for hydrogen production and fuel cells use for electricity supply and heat cogeneration may be part of the answer. Their development still need some improvements on both processes and materials aspects. Active materials based on aerogels are possible promising candidates, as catalyst supports or photocatalysts, due to a specific morphology and suited properties well adapted to the aforementioned applications.
Doped tin or titanium dioxide aerogels have thus been synthesized in our laboratory in order to help improving the performance and the durability of low temperature fuel cells [1,2,3], namely PEMFC, and water splitting process for hydrogen production [4].
We propose to summarize our work on this class of materials for the specified applications. The synthesis, based on the sol-gel process associated to supercritical drying, allowed to readily prepare doped oxides aerogels, while i) keeping reasonable specific surface areas and ii) providing adequate porosity. Promising results have been obtained in operating conditions. References: 1 Christian Beauger et al, Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 232, 109-118 (2016). 2. G. Ozouf, C. Beauger, Journal of Materials Science 51(11), 5305-5320 (2016). 3. G. Ozouf et al., ECSTransaction 69(17), 1207-1220 (2015). 4. D D’Elia et al, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 36, 14360-14373 (2011)