Školitel: RNDr. Peter Kúš, Ph.D.
Stav práce: volná
Anotace:
Modern society increasingly relies on renewable energy sources. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power generation requires efficient energy storage and release. The hydrogen economy offers an ideal solution by converting electricity into hydrogen via water electrolysis and later utilizing the stored hydrogen in industrial applications, transportation, or reconverting it into electricity via fuel cells when needed.
Water electrolyzers (WEs) rely on nanostructured catalysts to drive electrochemical water splitting into hydrogen and oxygen [1]. It is essential to make these catalysts as durable, cost-effective, and active as possible. This dissertation will build on the promising results of the Nanomaterials Group, particularly in the development of bimetallic and segmented nanostructures prepared using multi-target magnetron sputtering [2].
The focus will be on operando characterization, including in-cell X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy [3], in-cell X-ray diffraction [4], and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, to monitor the potential-induced physicochemical and structural evolution of the prepared catalysts. These methods will provide unprecedented insight into complex processes that can only be directly observed during individual reactions. The efficiency of the studied catalysts will be investigated in parallel using conventional single cells under industrial operating conditions, with complementary analyses routinely performed using standard lab-based methods.