Heterogeneities in Energy Materials – Friends or Foes?

Speaker: Professor Nicolas Plumeré, Technical University Munich

Performances of catalysts in electrochemical devices greatly depend on how they are interfaced with electrodes. Immobilization in porous materials or thin films create heterogeneities that define mass transport and electron transfer to the catalyst, and therefore affects the activity and robustness of a catalytic system. I will discuss bioelectrochemical systems based on polymer films and porous electrodes as a case-study to highlight how quantitative analysis and rational design of heterogeneities can be used for achieving the desired catalytic properties. Tuning heterogeneities in catalytic rates can be used to effectively protect hydrogenases and CO2 reducing enzymes and significantly increase their operational lifetime. This comes with a requirement of perfect homogeneities in the film dimensions to fine tune tradeoffs between catalyst utilization, catalyst protection and energy efficiency.