Substrates for Energy devices

The global environmental concerns and the escalating demand for energy, coupled with a steady progress in renewable energy technologies, are opening up new opportunities for the utilization of renewable energy resources. In this context Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells (DAFCs) represent a promising energy conversion device for mobile and stationary applications. Among the key issues to be addressed for their technological exploitation, the alcohol cross-over represents a limiting factor since the alcohol can be directly oxidized on the cathode and shortcircuit the cell. In parallel, the recent improvement of anion membranes makes the development of alkaline DAFCs competitive with the acid ones. In this work we present the preparation (electrodeposition and sol-gel) and characterization of Pt free metal and metal oxides as possible cathode and anode materials in alkaline DAFCs. More specifically, the electrodeposition protocols include the Selective Electrodesorption Based Atomic Layer Deposition (SEBALD) used to prepare new bimetallic electrodes for fuel cells. This new method of Electrodeposition, recently pointed out in Florence on the basis of ECALE method, allows to deposit under morphological and compositional control those metals that cannot be deposited at underpotential. In parallel, low-temperature sol-gel synthetic process are adopted to produce tailored nanostructured mixed oxide disperse phase electrocatalysts, to be used as cathode material in membrane-electrode-assemblies (MEA).