Energy

Alloy nanoparticles cut cost of platinum and increase life of hydrogen fuel cells

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The new catalyst combines an outer shell of platinum atoms (gray spheres) with ordered layers of platinum and cobalt atoms (blue spheres) in its core
Sun lab/Brown University
The new catalyst is not only cheaper than pure platinum, but is also more efficient and longer lasting in fuel cells
Sun lab/Brown University
The new catalyst combines an outer shell of platinum atoms (gray spheres) with ordered layers of platinum and cobalt atoms (blue spheres) in its core
Sun lab/Brown University

A team of Brown University scientists has developed a new catalyst that could make hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles more economical. Based on nanoparticles made of an alloy of platinum and cobalt, the new catalyst is not only cheaper than pure platinum, but is also more efficient and longer lasting.

Hydrogen fuel cells hold the promise of vehicles that, with the proper infrastructure, combine the eco-friendliness of electric cars with the range and freedom of conventional fossil fuels. However, for fuel cells to work, they need a catalyst to facilitate the critical oxygen reduction reaction.

Fuel cells contain a proton exchange membrane (PEM) with hydrogen on one side and air containing oxygen on the other. Electrons are stripped from the hydrogen atoms and taken up by the oxygen atoms in what is called the oxygen reduction reaction to generate electricity. The problem is, for the reaction to work, a catalyst is needed. Otherwise, the energy hurdle is too great.

Platinum is the go-to catalyst, but the element is expensive, not very efficient, and is prone to "poisoning" where impurities latch onto the platinum molecules, preventing reactions. According to team leader Junrui Li, alloying platinum with metals like cobalt is cheaper and makes the catalyst more efficient, but the base metal quickly oxidizes inside the harsh conditions of the fuel cell and leeches away.

To prevent this, the Brown team created nanoparticles consisting of an outer layer of pure platinum and an interior built up of alternating layers of platinum and cobalt atoms.

"The layered arrangement of atoms in the core helps to smooth and tighten platinum lattice in the outer shell," says says Shouheng Sun, professor of chemistry. "That increases the reactivity of the platinum and at the same time protects the cobalt atoms from being eaten away during a reaction. That's why these particles perform so much better than alloy particles with random arrangements of metal atoms."

Tests of the new catalytic nanoparticles show that they already out-perform platinum and remained active after 30,000 voltage cycles – a point at which platinum drops off radically. However, the team stresses that what happens on a lab bench is different from what happens inside a fuel cell with its greater temperature and acidity. The new catalyst was therefore sent to the Los Alamos National Lab for further testing inside an actual cell.

The team says that the tests indicate that the new catalyst exceeds the targets set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for both initial activity and longer-term durability, with an initial activity of 0.56 amps per milligram and an activity after 30,000 cycles (roughly equivalent of five-years inside a fuel cell) of 0.45 amps.

"Even after 30,000 cycles, our catalyst still exceeded the DOE target for initial activity," says Sun. "That kind of performance in a real-world fuel cell environment is really promising."

Work continues on the catalyst, which is already the subject of a provisional patent application.

The research was published in Joule.

Source: Brown University

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4 comments
myale
Great work , but I would be concerned cobalt supplies have very large issues and it one of the current resource worries for lithium batteries- would be great to take this work one step further and get it to use an alternative metal
DaveWesely
BEVs are a cakewalk compared to FCEVs. Fuel Cell vehicles have so many technical hurdles it is mind boggling. Yet we seem to have plenty of money for its research. This is nothing but a panicked effort to keep us on fossil fuels. As for a proper infrastructure, it is already there for BEVs. It's called an electrical grid.
Nik
Expensive hi-tech stuff, unlikely to be useful except in exotic space machines, where cost is is outweighed by necessity.
Canadelectrochim
It is important to have way a cheap method to produce green hydrogen . Green hydrogen is produced without any production of green house gases. Green hydrogen does not contain any monoxide that can poison the fuel cell catalyst. Even the air that is used at the cathode contains pollution and dust.Solution to this problem is easy. Discover the holy grail.A catalyst that can split water into green hydrogen and clean pure oxygen. These two gases used as feed to the fuel cell.