Skip to main content
Log in

Recent advancements on non-platinum based catalyst electrode material for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: a mini techno-economic review

  • Published:
Bulletin of Materials Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The crucial component involved in a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack is the catalyst electrode material which performs a significant role in reaction kinetics and subsequently on the performance. Recent days have given impetus to the advancements of a relatively cost-effective, yet high-performance electrocatalyst for PEM fuel cell application. Qualitative studies reveal that significant advancements in the stability and activity of non-platinum electrocatalysts were achieved that could make a significant contribution on commercializing the PEM fuel cells in a vast scale. The present paper reviews the non-platinum-based electrode materials used for PEM fuel cell in the past seven years (2015–2021) and also envisages on the role of novel cost-effective electrode materials. In addition, the paper also provides a critical snapshot on the advancements of the PEM fuel cell electrode materials in diverse operating environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1

Copyright 2019 with permission from Springer.

Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4

Copyright 2014 with permission from licensee Beilstein-Institut.

Figure 5
Figure 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Jayakumar A, Chalmers A and Lie T T 2017 IET Electr. Syst. Transp. 7 259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Nowotny J, Dodson J, Fiechter S, Gür T M, Kennedy B, Macyk W et al 2018 Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 81 2541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Gielen D, Boshell F, Saygin D, Bazilian M D, Wagner N and Gorini R 2019 Energy Strategy Rev. 24 38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Alizadeh M I, Parsa Moghaddam M, Amjady N, Siano P and Sheikh-El-Eslami M K 2016 Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 57 1186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hemanth Kumar D, Krishna R, Dinesh Kumar M, Pradhan R and Sreenivasan M 2020 Mater. Today Proceed. 33 326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hirth L, Ueckerdt F and Edenhofer O 2015 Renew. Energy 74 925

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Rahman M M and Velayutham E 2020 Renew. Energy 147 399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hosseini S E and Wahid M A 2016 Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 57 850

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pethaiah S S, Sadasivuni K K, Jayakumar A, Ponnamma D, Tiwary C S and Sasikumar G 2020 Energies 13 5879

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Pethaiah S S, Arunkumar J, Ramos M, Al-Jumaily A and Manivannan N 2016 Bull. Mater. Sci. 39 273

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Ediger Volkan S 2019 Energy Procedia 156 2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Chang Y and Fang Z 2017 Energy Policy 105 493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Minh N Q and Shirley Meng Y 2019 MRS Bull. 44 682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ellamla H R, Staffell I, Bujlo P, Pollet B G and Pasupathi S 2015 J. Power Sour. 293 312

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Wilberforce T, Alaswad A, Palumbo A, Dassisti M and Olabi A G 2016 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 41 16509

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Fuel cells: data, facts and figures. Available: https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Fuel_cell (Accessed on 8 February 2021)

  17. Scherer G G 2013 in Kreuer K D (ed.) Fuel cells: selected entries from the encyclopedia of sustainability science and technology (New York: Springer) p. 97

  18. Sohani A, Naderi S, Torabi F, Sayyaadi H, Akhlaghi Y G, Zhao X et al 2020 J. Clean. Prod. 252 119567

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Rosli R E, Sulong A B, Daud W R W, Zulkifley M A, Husaini T, Rosli M I et al 2017 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 42 9293

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Jayakumar A 2019 Front. Energy 13 325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Li Y, Zhou Z, Liu X and Wu W T 2019 Appl. Energy 242 1513

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Parts of fuel cells. Available: https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/parts-fuel-cell (Accessed on 11 February 2021)

  23. Liu D, Xia S, Tang H, Zhong D, Wang B, Cai X et al 2018 Int. J. Energy Res. 43 2571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ioroi T, Siroma Z, Yamazaki S I and Yasuda K 2019 Adv. Energy Mater. 9 1801284

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Jourdani M, Mounir H and ElMarjani A 2017 International Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conference (IRSEC), pp. 1–6

  26. Jayakumar A 2018 Appl. Phys. Chem. Multidiscipl. Approach. 3 23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Laoun B, Kasat H A, Ahmad R and Kannan A M 2018 Energy 151 689

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Lee D, Lim J W and Lee D G 2017 Compos. Struct. 167 144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Shimpalee S, Lilavivat V, McCrabb H, Khunatorn Y, Lee H K, Lee W K et al 2016 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 41 13688

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Pehlivan-Davis S 2016 PhD Thesis (Loughborough University)

  31. Moreno N G, Molina M C, Gervasio D and Robles J F P 2015 Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 52 897

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Majlan E H, Rohendi D, Daud W R W, Husaini T and Haque M A 2018 Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 89 117

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Millington B, Du S and Pollet B G 2011 J. Power Sour. 196 9013

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Ehelebe K, Ashraf T, Hager S, Seeberger D, Thiele S and Cherevko S 2020 Electrochem. Commun. 116 106761

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Borup R L, Kusoglu A, Neyerlin K C, Mukundan R, Ahluwalia R K, Cullen D A et al 2020 Curr. Opin. Electrochem. 21 192

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Lee B, Kim J G and Pak C 2020 Korean J. Chem. Eng. 37 2334

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Leader A, Gaustad G and Babbitt C 2019 Mate. Renew. Sustain. Energy 8 1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Wang Y J, Long W, Wang L, Yuan R, Ignaszak A, Fang B et al 2018 Energy Environ. Sci. 11 258

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Zheng Z, Yang F, Lin C, Zhu F, Shen S, Wei G et al 2020 J. Power Sour. 451 227729

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Stariha S, Artyushkova K, Serov A and Atanassov P 2015 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 40 14676

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Stein T and Ein-Eli Y 2020 Energy Technol. 8 2000007

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Wang Y, Diaz D F R, Chen K S, Wang Z and Adroher X C 2020 Mater. Today 32 178

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Lee J M, Han H, Jin S, Choi S M, Kim H J, Seo M H et al 2019 Energy Technol. 7 1900312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Guterman V E, Belenov S V, Alekseenko A A, Lin R, Tabachkova N Y and Safronenko O I 2018 Electrocatalysis 9 550

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Jung S M, Yun S W, Kim J H, You S H, Park J, Lee S et al 2020 Nat. Catal. 3 639

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Motz A R, Kuo M C, Horan J L, Yadav R, Seifert S, Pandey T P et al 2018 Energy Environ. Sci. 11 1499

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Narayanan H and Basu S 2017 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 42 23814

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Barbosa R, Escobar B, Cano U, Ortegon J and Sanchez V M 2016 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 41 19399

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Shojaeefard M H, Molaeimanesh G R, Nazemian M and Moqaddari M R 2016 Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 41 20276

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Rahman M A, Holby E F, Ahmed T, Chuang P Y A, Babu S K, Kort-Kamp W J et al 2020 ECS meeting abstracts (IOP Publishing) p. 2133

  51. Wang X, Li Z, Qu Y, Yuan T, Wang W, Wu Y et al 2019 Chem 5 1486

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Holton O T and Stevenson J W 2013 Plat. Met. Rev. 57 259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Wang X X, Swihart M T and Wu G 2019 Nat. Catal. 2 578

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Nørskov J K, Rossmeisl J, Logadottir A, Lindqvist L R K J, Kitchin J R, Bligaard T et al 2004 J. Phys. Chem. B 108 17886

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Kocha S S, Shinozaki K, Zack J W, Myers D J, Kariuki N N, Nowicki T et al 2017 Electrocatalysis 8 366

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Zhang H, Chung H T, Cullen D A, Wagner S, Kramm U I, More K L et al 2019 Energy Environ. Sci. 12 2548

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  57. Jayakumar A 2018 PhD Thesis (Auckland University of Technology)

  58. Bezmalinovic D, Simic B and Barbir F 2015 J. Power Sour. 294 82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  59. Goshtasbi A, García-Salaberri P, Chen J, Talukdar K, Sanchez D G and Ersal T 2019 J. Electrochem. Soc. 166 F3154

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Aghighi M, Hoeh M A, Lehnert W, Merle G and Gostick J 2016 J. Electrochem. Soc. 163 F384

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Andronie A, Stamatin I, Girleanu V, Ionescu V and Buzbuchi N 2019 Procedia Manufac. 32 810

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Satjaritanun P, Hirano S, Zenyuk I V, Weidner J W, Tippayawong N and Shimpalee S 2019 J. Electrochem. Soc. 167 013516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Scofield M E, Liu H and Wong S S 2015 Chem. Soc. Rev. 44 5836

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  64. Thompson S T, Wilson A R, Zelenay P, Myers D J, More K L, Neyerlin K C et al 2018 Solid State Ionics 319 68

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  65. Kiani M, Zhang J, Luo Y, Jiang C, Fan J, Wang G et al 2018 J. Energy Chem. 27 1124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Duclos L, Chattot R, Dubau L, Thivel P X, Mandil G, Laforest V et al 2020 Green Chem. 22 1919

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  67. Liu M, Zhao Z, Duan X and Huang Y 2019 Adv. Mater. 31 1802234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Xiao W, Lei W, Gong M, Xin H L and Wang D 2018 ACS Catal. 8 3237

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  69. Kregar A, Kravos A and Katrašnik T 2020 Fuel Cells 20 487

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  70. Kregar A and Katrašnik T 2019 Open Phys. 17 779

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  71. Neumann S, Schröder J, Bizzotto F, Arenz M, Dworzak A, Oezaslan M et al 2019 ChemNanoMat 5 462

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  72. Antolini E 2016 Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 181 298

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  73. Li L, Hu L, Li J and Wei Z 2015 Nano Res. 8 418

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  74. Escaño M C S 2015 Nano Res. 8 1689

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Paul S, Choi S J and Kim H J 2020 Energy Fuels 34 10067

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  76. Wang Y J, Zhao N, Fang B, Li H, Bi X T and Wang H 2015 RSC Adv. 5 56570

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  77. Singh K, Tetteh E B, Lee H Y, Kang T H and Yu J S 2019 ACS Catal. 9 8622

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  78. Sakthivel M, Radev I, Peinecke V and Drillet J F 2015 J. Electrochem. Soc. 162 F901

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  79. Lin R, Che L, Shen D and Cai X 2020 Electrochim. Acta 330 135251

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  80. Rohendi D, Rachmat A and Syarif N 2018 J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1095 012007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  81. Bele M, Gatalo M, Jovanovič P, Ruiz-Zepeda F, Šala M, Šest E et al 2019 Catalysts 9 544

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  82. Daş E, Gürsel S A and Yurtcan A B 2020 J. Supercrit. Fluids 165 104962

    Article  Google Scholar 

  83. Chiwata M, Yano H, Ogawa S, Watanabe M, Iiyama A and Uchida H 2016 Electrochemistry 84 133

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  84. Zhang G R and Wöllner S 2018 Appl. Catal. B Environ. 222 26

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  85. Latsuzbaia R, Negro E and Koper G 2015 Fuel Cells 15 628

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  86. Ghanbarian A and Kermani M J 2016 Energy Convers. Manage. 110 356

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  87. Cherevko S, Kulyk N and Mayrhofer K J 2016 Nano Energy 29 275

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  88. Dewi E L 2019 J. Sains Mater. Indonesia 9 57

    Google Scholar 

  89. Ayers K E, Renner J N, Danilovic N, Wang J X, Zhang Y, Maric R et al 2016 Catal. Today 262 121

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  90. Chen J, Yang Y, Su J, Jiang P, Xia G and Chen Q 2017 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9 3596

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  91. Lori O and Elbaz L 2020 ChemCatChem 12 3434

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  92. Tian X, Luo J, Nan H, Zou H, Chen R, Shu T et al 2016 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 138 1575

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  93. Balva M, Legeai S, Leclerc N, Billy E and Meux E 2017 ChemSusChem 10 2922

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  94. Zhuang S, Shi X and Lee E S 2015 International conference on fuel cell science, engineering and technology, p. V001T04A005

  95. Vinayan B P, Diemant T, Behm R J and Ramaprabhu S 2015 RSC Adv. 5 66494

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  96. Liu T, Zhao P, Hua X, Luo W, Chen S and Cheng G 2016 J. Mater. Chem. A 4 11357

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  97. Bhange S N, Unni S M and Kurungot S 2018 ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 1 368

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  98. Khan K, Tareen A K, Aslam M, Khan S A, Khan Q U, Saeed M et al 2019 Sci. Rep. 9 1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  99. Martínez-Huerta M V and Lázaro M J 2017 Catal. Today 285 3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  100. Pavlicek R, Strickland K and Mukerjee S 2016 ECS Meeting Abstracts (IOP Publishing) p. 110

  101. Wu N, Wang Y, Lei Y, Wang B, Han C, Gou Y et al 2015 Sci. Rep. 5 1

    Google Scholar 

  102. Razmjooei F, Yu J H, Lee H Y, Lee B J, Singh K P, Kang T H et al 2020 ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 3 11164

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  103. Pethaiah S S, Kumar J A and Kalyani P 2011 Ionics 17 339

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  104. Rajalakshmi N and Dhathathreyan K S 2007 Chem. Eng. J. 129 31

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  105. Pizzutilo E, Geiger S, Grote J P, Mingers A, Mayrhofer K J J, Arenz M et al 2016 J. Electrochem. Soc. 163 F1510

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  106. Ren X, Lv Q, Liu L, Liu B, Wang Y, Liu A et al 2020 Sustain Energy Fuels 4 15

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  107. Garay-Reyes C G, Hernández-Santiago F, Cayetano-Castro N, Martínez-Sánchez R, Hernández-Rivera J L, Dorantes-Rosales H J et al 2014 Bull. Mater. Sci. 37 823

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  108. Yang Z, Berber M R and Nakashima N 2015 Electrochim. Acta 170 1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  109. Zamora H, Plaza J, Cañizares P, Lobato J and Rodrigo M A 2016 ChemSusChem 9 1187

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  110. Zheng L, Dong Y, Chi B, Cui Z, Deng Y, Shi X et al 2019 Small 15 1803520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  111. Waseem S, Maheshwari P H, Abinaya S, Sahu A K, Saini A and Dhakate S R 2019 Int. J. Energy Res. 43 2897

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  112. Waseem S, Maheshwari P H, Maheshwari P, Sahu A K, Saini A and Dhakate S R 2020 Energy Fuels 34 16736

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  113. Wang X X, Prabhakaran V, He Y, Shao Y and Wu G 2019 Adv. Mater. 31 1805126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  114. He Y, Hwang S, Cullen D A, Uddin M A, Langhorst L, Li B et al 2019 Energy Environ. Sci. 12 250

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  115. Wang S, Qiao M, Wang Y, Wang Q, Hu G, Mamat X et al 2019 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 7 2688

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  116. Ponomarev I I, Skupov K M, Naumkin A V, Basu V G, Zhigalina O M, Razorenov D Y et al 2019 RSC Adv. 9 257

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  117. Shen Y, Li Y, Yang G, Zhang Q, Liang H and Peng F 2020 J. Energy Chem. 44 106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  118. Xia D, Tang F, Yao X, Wei Y, Cui Y, Dou M et al 2020 Carbon 162 300

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  119. Wu Y, Huang J, Lin Z, Li L, Liang G, Jin Y Q et al 2021 Chem. Eng. J. 423 130241

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  120. Tan R K L, Reeves S P, Hashemi N, Thomas D G, Kavak E, Montazami R et al 2017 J. Mater. Chem. A 5 17777

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  121. Mitra S, Banerjee S, Datta A and Chakravorty D 2016 Indian J. Phys. 90 1019

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  122. Ke Q and Wang J 2016 J. Materiomics 2 37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  123. Unni S M, Illathvalappil R, Bhange S N, Puthenpediakkal H and Kurungot S 2015 ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 7 24256

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  124. Kakaei K and Balavandi A 2016 J. Colloid Interface Sci. 463 46

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  125. Marinoiu A, Raceanu M, Carcadea E, Varlam M and Stefanescu I 2017 Appl. Surf. Sci. 424 93

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  126. Ma R, Lin G, Zhou Y, Liu Q, Zhang T, Shan G et al 2019 NPJ Comput. Mater. 5

  127. Higgins D, Zamani P, Yu A and Chen Z 2016 Energy Environ. Sci. 9 357

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  128. Zhu J, Yang D, Yin Z, Yan Q and Zhang H 2014 Small 10 3480

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  129. Marinoiu A, Raceanu M, Carcadea E and Varlam M 2018 Appl. Surf. Sci. 456 238

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  130. Wu J, Xiong L, Zhao B, Liu M and Huang L 2020 Small Meth. 4 1900540

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  131. Cheng Y, He S, Lu S, Veder J, Johannessen B, Thomsen L et al 2019 Adv. Sci. 6 1802066

    Article  Google Scholar 

  132. Jiao L and Jiang H L 2019 Chem 5 786

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  133. Arunchander A, Nishanth K G, Tintula K K, Peera S G and Sahu A K 2015 Bull. Mater. Sci. 38 451

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  134. Wang M, Zhang H, Thirunavukkarasu G, Salam I, Varcoe J R, Mardle P et al 2019 ACS Energy Lett. 4 2104

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  135. Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) Market. Available: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/proton-exchange-membrane-fuel-cell-pemfc-market-101708 (Accessed on 18 February 2021)

  136. de Frank Bruijn A and Janssen G J M 2019 Lipman T and Weber A (eds) Encyclopedia of sustainability science and technology series (New York: Springer)

  137. Zhang J 2019 Lipman T and Weber A (eds) Encyclopedia of sustainability science and technology series (New York: Springer)

Download references

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Susso Foundation Cares.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arunkumar Jayakumar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Madheswaran, D.K., Jayakumar, A. Recent advancements on non-platinum based catalyst electrode material for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: a mini techno-economic review. Bull Mater Sci 44, 287 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-021-02572-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-021-02572-6

Keywords

Navigation