New catalyst could replace platinum in fuel cells

The finding, detailed in Scientific Reports, is said to be a step toward eliminating what industry regards as the largest obstacle to large-scale commercialisation of fuel cell technology.

Manufacturers have been testing and developing different forms of fuel cells for more than a decade but the high cost and insufficiencies of platinum catalysts have been problematic.

‘The catalysts are more stable than platinum catalysts and tolerate carbon monoxide poisoning and methanol crossover,’ said Liming Dai, the Kent Hale Smith Professor of macromolecular science and engineering at Case Western Reserve and one of the report’s authors.

In their initial tests, a cathode coated with one form of catalyst—graphene nanoparticles edged with iodine—proved more efficient in the oxygen reduction reaction, generating 33 per cent more current than a commercial cathode coated with platinum generated.

Like a battery, a fuel cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy. It works by removing an electron from a fuel, usually hydrogen or methanol mixed with water, at the cell’s anode, creating a current. Hydrogen ions produced then pass through a membrane to the cathode. Here, oxygen molecules from the air are split and reduced by the addition of electrons and combined with the hydrogen ions to form water and heat.