ScienceDaily - In a paper published April 21 in Science, Los Alamos researchers Gang Wu, Christina Johnston, and Piotr Zelenay, joined by researcher Karren More of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, describe the use of a platinum-free catalyst in the cathode of a hydrogen fuel cell. Eliminating platinum -- a precious metal more expensive than gold -- would solve a significant economic challenge that has thwarted widespread use of large-scale hydrogen fuel cell systems.
"The encouraging point is that we have found a catalyst with a good durability and life cycle relative to platinum-based catalysts," said Zelenay, corresponding author for the paper. "For all intents and purposes, this is a zero-cost catalyst in comparison to platinum, so it directly addresses one of the main barriers to hydrogen fuel cells."
"Because of the successful performance of the new catalyst, the Los Alamos researchers have filed a patent for it?"
I sounded a lot like my post from a year ago "Next100... a new discovery from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) of an effective replacement for platinum as a catalyst for the production of hydrogen from water could be a very big deal indeed. If hydrogen could be produced cheaply enough, it could be used for clean electric power generation or as a transportation fuel. The only byproduct would be water vapor. A team at LBNL says it has identified a molybdenum compound that works about as well as platinum but costs only one-seventieth as much.
"The encouraging point is that we have found a catalyst with a good durability and life cycle relative to platinum-based catalysts," said Zelenay, corresponding author for the paper. "For all intents and purposes, this is a zero-cost catalyst in comparison to platinum, so it directly addresses one of the main barriers to hydrogen fuel cells."
"Because of the successful performance of the new catalyst, the Los Alamos researchers have filed a patent for it?"
Did they google "hydrogen fuel cells without using platinum" and by timeline?
Or are we all just barking up the same hydrogen bond ;-)
Did Berkeley do this first, the Swis or Oak Ridge Lab?
I sounded a lot like my post from a year ago "Next100... a new discovery from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) of an effective replacement for platinum as a catalyst for the production of hydrogen from water could be a very big deal indeed. If hydrogen could be produced cheaply enough, it could be used for clean electric power generation or as a transportation fuel. The only byproduct would be water vapor. A team at LBNL says it has identified a molybdenum compound that works about as well as platinum but costs only one-seventieth as much.