New design improves fuel cell
Clears path for widespread hydrogen-powered cars, say scientists
The widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells for personal vehicles is one step closer this week, thanks to a team of scientists' tinkering.
Tests with a newly-minted part in the favoured fuel cell design for cars reveal it yields 90 times more power than the model currently used. The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that using a platinum-nickel alloy instead of a platinum-carbon alloy yields more electricity.
Hydrogen fuel cells convert chemical energy into electricity by combining hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the air. But a platinum-based membrane is required to turn these chemicals into a big battery.
The membrane conducts protons after away after a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. That leaves the electrons to travel through a wire, and voila - power.
The problem is that current models couldn't split up oxygen molecules very quickly. That's a problem solved with the new design.
"Since the only byproduct of fuel cell exploitation is water vapor, their widespread use should have a tremendously beneficial impact on greenhouse gas emissions and global warming," says lead researcher Vojislav Stemenkovic.
The design relies on a finely-tuned nanoscale surface shape as much as the alloy to efficiently conduct electricity.
A skin of pure-platinum atoms coat the platinum-nickel atoms layered to make the proton membrane.
This prevents the membrane from degrading over time.
