Chapter 19

Design and Fabrication of Sonochemically Prepared Functionalized Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell Applications

Jayaraman Kalidass

Jayaraman Kalidass

Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

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Thirugnanasambandam Sivasankar

Thirugnanasambandam Sivasankar

Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India

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First published: 27 July 2025

Summary

In todays’ fuel cell technology, achieving excellent electrochemical activity between fuel and oxidant, the design factors should be considered prior to increasing the performance of the fuel cell and to reduce the cost of fabrication techniques. Among various design and development processes, improved fabrication techniques and functionalization of synthesized nanomaterials are necessary to boost up the surface activity so that catalytic property of the electrodes would be intensified. The intensified catalytic property relatively increases the electrochemical redox reactions and that would lead to upgrade the overall conversion efficiency. In association with recent advancement in design and fabrication of functionalized nanomaterials, considering economic factors such as cost and time, ultrasonic irradiation method is found to be a promising technology with multiple beneficial features like rapid synthesis, energy efficiency, and ability to control the morphology, through its attractive bubble dynamics phenomenon. The formation, growth, and collapse of microbubbles based on the positive and negative pressure cycle would create the generation of radicals as a chemical effect and diversified physical effects including the formation of microturbulence, microjet, and agitation. The combined effect of hot spot and electrical theory leads to increase in the rate of mass transfer kinetics between molecules with better dispersibility toward high-performance fuel cell technology. In this chapter, the advantages of using ultrasound for the design and fabrication of fuel cell materials and its application as an electrocatalysts, electrodes, and membranes for advanced fuel cell technology have been elaborated based on recent studies.

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