Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells: A Comparative Review of Acidic and Alkaline Systems
1Italian National Research Council (CNR) - Institute of Chemistry of OrganoMetallic Compounds (ICCOM), Via Madonna Del Piano 10, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy
2Materials Physics and Applications Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 87545, Los Alamos, NM, USA
3Italian National Research Council (CNR) – Institute for Advanced Energy Technology “Nicola Giordano” (CNR-ITAE), Via Salita S. Lucia 5, 98126, Messina, Italy
4Engineering Department, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128, Palermo, Italy
5Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Turin, Italy
6Electrocatalysis and Bioelectrocatalysis Laboratory, Department of Material Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, Building U5, Via Cozzi 55, 20125, Milan, Italy
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Enrico Berretti is a Postdoc at the ICCOM institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). He got his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Sciences at the University of Florence in 2018, working on the electrodeposition of materials for energy conversion and storage. During the following years at ICCOM, he managed to deepen his knowledge on the synthesis and characterization of critical-raw-materials-free catalysts for fuel cells and electrolysers. His actual work is focused on the development of CRM-free electro-catalytical architectures produced by physico/chemical fabrication methods, and on the characterization of energy materials using focused beams of particles and electromagnetic radiations.
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Luigi Osmieri obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering in 2016 from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy. From 2017 to 2020 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA. Currently he is a Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA. His main research interests are catalysts for oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution, hydrogen evolution, and CO2 reduction reactions, electrocatalysis, polymer electrolyte fuel cells, water electrolyzers, and electrode structure engineering for electrochemical energy conversion devices. He is the author of 37 publications.
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Vincenzo Baglio is a Research Director at CNR – Institute for Advanced Energy Technologies “Nicola Giordano” (ITAE) of Messina, Italy. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in chemistry (1998) from University of Messina (Italy) and a Ph.D. degree in “Materials for Environment and Energy” (2005) from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (Italy). His current research is focused on energy conversion and storage, especially in the field of fuel cells, batteries and electrolysers. He published more than 200 articles in international journals, 8 book chapters, 1 book, 1 international patent. He is Editor-in-chief of the journal “Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy” (Springer-Nature).
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Hamish A. Miller is a researcher at the ICCOM institute of the CNR based in Florence, Italy. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in inorganic chemistry from the Queen’s University of Belfast (UK) in 1999, he spent 10 years working in the chemical industry including 6 years developing fuel cells and electrolyzers. His major research interests involve nanotechnology and electrocatalysis in energy related fields, in particular developing PGM-free electrocatalysts for alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolysers, electroreforming of renewable alcohols for co-production of chemicals and hydrogen and developing direct formate fuel cells.
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Jonathan Filippi obtained his Master’s degree in chemistry on April 2007 at the University of Florence, followed by Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences in 2012; he won a four year research contract at the Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (ICCOM) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) funded by Project FIRB 2010, after which he became a permanent researcher, working in the field of electrochemistry/electrocatalysis for fuel cells and hydrogen electrolyzers investigating many aspects, including oxygen reduction reaction and alcohol oxidation reaction, by using electrochemical techniques (CV, RDE experiments, full cell testing) and structural-morphological electrocatalyst characterization (XRD and microscopy).
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Francesco Vizza is Research Director at the Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (ICCOM)-CNR, Florence, Italy. He has an h-index of 53 (Scopus), and is the author of 230 peer-reviewed publications, 35 patents and 2 monographs. He received his degree in Biology in 1982 at the University of Florence. He was a post graduate researcher in chemistry at the University of Florence and then Researcher, Senior Researcher and Director at the ICCOM-CNR. Research Interests include: organometallic chemistry, catalysis, electrocatalysts for fuel cells (DAFC and PEMFC), electroreforming for hydrogen production, electrocatalysts for the reduction of CO2, development of photocatalysts for H2 evolution, organometallic fuel cells (OMFC), recovery of metals from waste lithium batteries.
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Monica Santamaria is full professor at the engineering department of the University of Palermo, where she leads the “Applied Electrochemistry” group. Her research deals with the use of photoelectrochemistry in the characterization of electronic properties of passive films and corrosion layers, as well as of oxides for advanced technological applications. Moreover, she works in the field of low temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells and electrochemical treatments for surface functionalization. Monica Santamaria has published more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, 6 book chapters and has an h-factor of 28. She is member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Electrochemistry serving as treasurer.
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Stefania Specchiachemical engineer, is a full professor of Chemical Plants Design at the Politecnico di Torino, and associate researcher at the CNR-ITAE “Nicola Giordano” (Italy). She is a member of the Committee Board of the International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science (IAOEES). Leader of the Gre.En2 Group (Green Energy and Engineering group), her technical expertise areas are catalytic reaction engineering, electrochemistry, heterogeneous catalysis and electrocatalysis. Her work has resulted in the development of a wide range of catalysts and electrocatalysts for PEMFC/DMFC, methane combustion and gas sensing. She also works on transition technologies for low- or zero-emission energy recovery systems for hydrogen production and waste valorization.
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Carlo Santoro got his Ph.D. degree at the University of Connecticut in 2009, working on microbial fuel cells. He moved to the University of New Mexico in 2013 working on platinum-free electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction and supercapacitive bio-electrochemical systems. Following a spell as Lecturer at the University of Manchester (2020), he joined the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2021 as Assistant Professor, where he established the Electrocatalysis and Bioelectrocatalysis Lab (EBLab). His work focuses on development of electrocatalysts based on platinum-group metal-free materials for electrochemical systems, pursuing biomimetic and bioinspired approaches. He has published over 120 manuscripts and holds 2 patents.
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Alessandro Lavacchi is a senior researcher at the Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of the National Research Council of Italy, where he also is the Head of the Electron Microscopy Facility. His research focuses on the development and characterization of nanomaterials for electrochemical conversion and storage, with a focus on direct alcohols fuel cells, electrolysis and biomass conversion in electrochemical devices. In his career, he co-authored more than 120 papers and the monograph “Nanotechnology in Electrocatalysis for Energy”.
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