One of the principal bottlenecks to the large scale introduction of fuel cells is the need to increase the temperature of operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and lower that of ceramic fuel cells. A driver for this research is the future use of fuel cells in automotive and stationary applications, the latter currently being considered in recent technology assessments as being closer to market introduction. Nevertheless, the strong collaboration with automotive industry continues, in view of longer-term introduction of fuel cells in this area. Overcoming the temperature bottleneck requires the development or improvement of highly performing materials. This has been a principal objective of our research on electrolyte materials (polymer and ceramic membranes) in the past period, with the outcome that very high temperature PEMFC (200 °C) is an attainable objective. These achievements are such that it is now recognised that step-change in high temperature operation will be brought about improvements in electrode materials and the electrode-membrane interface. New options lie in replacing carbon as catalyst support, and moving to nanostructuring of metal carbides, nitrides and borides. Such materials have already been considered, but new opportunities are created by very high temperature authorised by the use of new membranes, of novel nanostructuring methodologies and non-conventional processing to control architecture. Proton ceramic fuel cells (PCFC) are a credible option for reducing the temperature of operation of ceramic fuel cells to 400-700 °C. Excellent results achieved in the past period have led us to envisage the integration of novel ceramic membrane in a PCFC stack with scale-up in collaboration with EDF and French ceramics industry (ANR PAN-H CONDOR 2008-2011). The laboratory’s involvement in projects leading to the integration of the fuel cell into a working system is strengthened with a role of assessing the impact of operation on materials degradation, predicting lifetime, and proposing mitigation strategies (EUREKA, European Commission JTI-FCH).

Our considerations also include hydrogen purification and electrogeneration at low temperature and pressure of H2 and H2/O2 mixtures, and catalytic generation of H2 from kerosene (FP7 GreenAir). Participation in a project on PEM electrolysis for hydrogen generation (FP7 Initial Training Network SUSHGEN) makes use of our experience in high temperature polymer membranes, while a second project on low temperature electrolysis in aqueous electrolytes for the co-generation of H2 and O2 to be used as fuel in flame welding is supported by a co-funded CNRS studentship (collaboration Bulane). The aim of the project is to fabricate self-supported electrodes based on mesostructured/porous materials for improvement of the Coulombic efficiency of gas production and for a miniaturization of the complete device. The area of porous carbides, already explored in the context of high temperature PEMFC, will also be considered as precursors of carbons showing hierarchical porosity for electrochemical carbide-derived carbon applications, more particularly supercapacitors. Photovoltaic and supercapacitor systems are being investigated in projects starting in 2009 for device coupling and integration in complex systems as micro-power sources (generation/storage) for printed electronics (radio frequency identification tags). Finally, integration of new materials with supercapacitor properties in fuel cell electrodes are being developed to protect the membrane electrode assembly from high frequency and transient currents generated by the AC-DC converter using the effect of the double layer capacitance (CNRS Energy 2 programme).