At PowerCell, we develop both fuel cell stacks and systems for various applications. The continuous improvement of efficiency, performance and durability is very important. There the fuel cell catalysts play an important role. For an efficient support to our engineering process from early development phase until implementation and integration in customer use-cases, PowerCell is about to develop fundamental catalyst characterization tools. An appropriate method is here the rotating disk electrode (RDE), which is a well-known and effective technique to analyse and compare the activity and durability of electrocatalysts in lab scale without the influence of other components in a fuel cell.

We are therefore looking for an Internship or Master Thesis Student to support us in the development process of our fuel cell catalyst evaluation capabilities.

Topics:

• The main topic is to improve the coating of RDE electrodes by optimizing the receipt and dispersion of Pt/C catalyst inks. The evaluation will be done e.g. by measurements of the electrochemical surface area (ECSA) or activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).
• Later topics might be
• Investigating dispersion parameters for catalyst inks intended for membrane electrode assembly (MEA) coatings.
• Development of accurate and reproducible test methods for fuel cell catalysts.
• Evaluation of catalysts with respect to ECSA, durability and activity for ORR.

Required qualifications:

• Participation in a M.Sc. program or similar in chemical / process engineering, or similar
• Self-driven, highly engaged, and motivated personality, with a strong problem-solving approach
• In your work you have a high safety awareness and appreciate accuracy and precision
• Fluent in English, both oral and written

Additional desirable qualifications:

• Practical experience of laboratory work
• Swedish language skills
• Knowledge in electrochemistry
• Material science background
• Experience with the RDE method
• PEM fuel cell knowledge and/or experimental experience