CatBot – a high-throughput catalyst synthesis and testing system with roll to roll transfer

Abstract

Fast and accurate synthesis and testing of electrocatalysts is essential to accelerate development of next generation catalysts for sustainable energy technologies. In this paper, we introduce CatBot, a fully automated platform for reliable synthesis and testing of electrocatalysts capable of operating at temperatures of up to 100 °C from highly acidic to highly alkaline conditions. The platform leverages roll-to-roll transfer, integrating customizable stages for substrate cleaning, catalyst loading, and electrochemical testing, with a custom made liquid distribution system enabling multi-element electrocatalyst synthesis via electrodeposition. CatBot enables fabrication and testing of up to 100 electrocatalysts per day, significantly accelerating catalyst discovery and optimization. We demonstrate the platform's reproducibility, through synthesis and testing of various catalytic coatings for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline conditions, achieving overpotential uncertainties in the range of 4–13 mV at −100 mA cm⁻². Additionally, we benchmark the platform by comparing anodic and cathodic redox peaks for nickel in alkaline solutions confirming consistency with previous studies. Thus, CatBot comprises an automated, fast, reproducible, accurate and scalable synthesis and testing system for the accelerated development of next generation electrocatalysts.