Carbon-Coated Nickel Enables Fuel Cell Free of Precious Metals
upstart writes:
Carbon-coated nickel enables fuel cell free of precious metals:
The new discovery could accelerate the widespread use of hydrogen fuel cells, which hold great promise as efficient, clean energy sources for vehicles and other applications.
[...] "This finding makes progress toward using efficient, clean hydrogen fuel cells in place of fossil fuels," said Abruna, professor in the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University.
[...] Expensive precious metals, such as platinum, are currently required in hydrogen fuel cells to efficiently catalyze the reactions they employ to produce electricity. Although alkaline polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (APEMFCs) enable the use nonprecious metal electrocatalysts, they lack the necessary performance and durability to replace precious metal-based systems.
A fuel cell produces electricity through the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and an oxygen reduction reaction (OOR). Platinum, in particular, is a model catalyst for both reactions because it catalyzes them efficiently, and is durable in the acidic environment of a PEM fuel cell, Abruna said.
Recent experiments with nonprecious-metal HOR electrocatalysts needed to overcome two major challenges, the researchers wrote: low intrinsic activity from too strong a hydrogen binding energy, and poor durability due to rapid passivation from metal oxide formation.
[...] In February, Abruna and colleagues found that a cobalt nitride catalyst is nearly as efficient as platinum in catalyzing the oxygen reduction reaction.
Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Alkaline-Based Energy Solutions, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, and the Zhuang research group at Wuhan University, China, supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Journal Reference:"A Completely Precious-Metal-Free Alkaline Fuel Cell With Enhanced Performance Using a Carbon-Coated Nickel Anode," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
(DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119883119)
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