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Friday, 12th January 2007 (5131 views)

Gold clusters have been found to be an effective addition to platinum during chemical reactions in fuel cells, scientists have announced.

Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory belonging to the US Department of Energy (DoE) have found that adding gold clusters to platinum electrocatalysts stops the catalyst from dissolving.

The discovery is expected to benefit the vehicle application of fuel cells and is reported in the journal Science, released today.

Co-author Radoslav Adzic said: "Fuel cells are expected to become a major source of clean energy, with particularly important applications in transportation.

"Despite many advances, however, existing fuel-cell technology still has drawbacks, including loss of platinum cathode electrocatalysts, which can be as much as 45 per cent over five days, as shown in our accelerated stability test under potential cycling conditions."

Platinum electocatalysts are used in order to speed up oxidation as well as reduction reactions in hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells.

Funded by the DoE, the new research forms part of the US government's commitment to sponsor the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

 

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