Prof. Dr. Peter Strasser

Peter Strasser is the chaired professor of “Electrochemistry and Electrocatalysis” in the Chemical Engineering Division of the Department of Chemistry at the Technical University Berlin. He was Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston, after he served as Senior Member of staff at Symyx Technologies Inc., working on Combinatorial and High Throughput Discovery of new functional materials. He earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from the ‘Fritz-Haber-Institute’ of the Max-Planck-Society in Berlin under the direction of Gerhard Ertl. He studied chemistry at Stanford University, the University of Tuebingen and the University of Pisa. Professor Strasser was awarded the ISE Brian Conway Prize in Physical Electrochemistry, The Nature publishing award, the IAHE Sir William Grove award in hydrogen research, the Otto-Roelen medal in Catalysis by the German Catalysis Society, the Ertl Prize, as well as the Otto-Hahn Research Medal by the Max-Planck Society.

Platinum group metal(oxide) (PGM) surfaces are characterized by adsorption sites with balanced chemisorption strength or suitable steric environments for reactive intermediates. This makes them excellent catalytic materials for the electrolytic generation of green hydrogen and syn-fuels. Their low and uneven abundance combined with a limited production, however, raises challenges for their deployment in future electrochemical devices at a global scale.

This talk will review material science strategies to minimize or replace precious metal group elements in electrolytic or galvanic devices for the production and use of green hydrogen. Examples include low-temperature water/CO2 electrolyzers and fuel cells.