Combinatorial Methods for PEM Fuel Cell Electrocatalysts

Fortunately, the situation began to change when a new field of chemistry, called combinatorial chemistry, arose in the late 1980s. Combinatorial chemistry is an iimovative approach to speed up the discovery and development of new molecules and materials. The early successes of combinatorial chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry have been followed by the discovery of a wide variety of important materials in chemistry and materials science. These materials range from catalysts, polymers, and zeolites to luminescent and magnetoresistive compounds. 

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It is worth noting that combinatorial chemistry has only been explored in the field of fuel cell electrocatalysis for a short time (around ten years). Therefore, it is still a developing and maturing technology. With improvement in both catalyst library preparation and screening techniques, combinatorial methods will become more important in new fuel cell electrocatalyst development. It is also believed that this combinatorial method will speed up new catalyst exploration, and thus accelerate developments toward PEM fuel cell breakthrough and commercialization. 

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