In the ongoing effort to achieve zero carbon footprints by the turn of the century and decarbonize transportation, green and sustainable energy sources have become the forefront. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers are among the emerging technologies for green hydrogen production due to their high operational current density, low operating temperature, and ultra-pure hydrogen. However, industrial scale hydrogen production via PEM water electrolyzers is greatly hindered by the interrelated TRIO-FACTOR of low performance, limited durability, and high cost of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Furthermore, utilization of hydrogen in PEM fuel cells also comes with another challenge of high cost of cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst. Therefore, it is of significant importance to develop cost effective and durable electrocatalyst for PEM water electrolyzer (sluggish anodic OER) and PEM fuel cells (sluggish cathodic ORR).  In this seminar, I will discuss my research work spamming over the last 5 years on catalyst fabrication specifically the supported catalyst for oxygen electrocatalysis in PEM water electrolyzer and PEM fuel cells. Various synthesis methodologies have been used for nanostructural catalyst support design. Similarly, the fabrication of low Pt or Ir over a high surface area corrosion resistant catalyst support is explored to improve the performance and durability while reducing the overall cost of catalyst. This work includes both carbon and non-carbon-based catalyst supports with low Pt and Ir alloys and single atoms for ORR and OER electrocatalysts. Supported catalysts provide synergy between catalyst nanoparticles and supports that improves the reaction kinetics by optimized charge transfer properties and durability. Finally, the advanced characterizations for morphological and electronic structural evaluation and electrochemical testing both at half-cell and single cell electrolyzer level will be discussed.

Short Biography of the Speaker:

Dr. Shahid Zaman is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hydrogen Research Institute, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), Canada, working on green hydrogen production. His current research work centers on development of cost-effective, high-performance electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers. Dr. Zaman obtained his M. Sc. and M. Phil. degrees in Inorganic/Analytical Chemistry from Quaid-i-Azam University. His M. Phil. thesis was based on metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived porous carbon materials for palladium nanocatalysts for formic acid oxidation reaction. He completed his Ph.D. in Materials Physics and Chemistry from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China in 2021, under the mentorship of Professor Xia Bao Yu. During his doctoral work, Dr. Zaman focused on synthesizing and tailoring MOF-derived carbon nanostructures as a catalyst support for low-platinum alloys towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). A key focus of his research was tuning the structure–activity relationship of these materials by incorporating low Pt alloys into nanocarbon supports.

After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Zaman worked at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China, as a Postdoctoral Researcher. There, he worked on developing mesoporous carbon supports for low-platinum alloy catalysts for ORR. Currently at UQTR, Dr. Zaman is engaged in the development of low-iridium (Ir) catalysts for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in PEM water electrolyzers. His goal is to engineer corrosion-resistant, conductive catalyst supports to reduce Ir loadings without compromising performance or durability. Dr. Zaman is also leading an industrial collaboration with Cummins Inc., focused on MEA fabrication and testing in PEM electrolyzers. He also supervises three Ph.D. students working anodic catalysts for PEM electrolyzers.

Dr. Zaman has extensive experience in broad range of nanomaterials synthesis techniques-including sol-gel, solid-state, and molten salt methods, and advanced characterization such as TEM, XPS, XAFS, and BET. Dr. Zaman has published over 70 articles in high-impact journals, including Nature Communications, JACS, Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, ACS Energy Letters, Matter, and Journal of Catalysis with over 6000 citations. Dr. Zaman is also involved actively in scientific community as an active reviewer and editor serving several journals from Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Elsevier, and Wiley.