New catalyst material could ignite fuel cell revolution

(Credit: BEXIM via CC)

Developed at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), the material is made of porous carbon nanofibres embedded with ions from either cobalt, iron or nickel. Due to their relative abundance, these metals can be up to 100 times cheaper than platinum, a key component in most polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) used today. The work is published in the journal Small.

Employing a technique called electrospinning, the UCR researchers made paper-thin sheets of carbon nanofibres embedded with the metal ions. Once heated, the ions formed ultrafine metal nanoparticles that catalysed the transformation of carbon into a high-performance graphite. The metal nanoparticles and residual non-graphite carbon were then oxidised, leading to a highly porous network of nanoparticles dispersed in a porous network of graphite.

"The key to the high performance of the materials we created is the combination of the chemistry and fibre processing conditions," said David Kisailus, Professor in Energy Innovation at UCR's College of Engineering. "The remarkable electrochemical properties were primarily attributed to the synergistic effects obtained from the engineering of the metal oxide with exposed active sites and the 3D hierarchical porous graphitic structure."