Home > Press > Move Over Platinum; University of Dayton Researcher Finds a Cheaper Way to Make Longer-Lasting Fuel Cells
Abstract:
Liming Dai, the University of Dayton's Wright Brothers Institute endowed chair in nanomaterials, and fellow scientists have taken a step toward a more efficient fuel cell that can be affordably mass-produced. They found that carbon nanotubes containing nitrogen are cheaper and work better than platinum in providing long-term fuel cell power. Science Magazine published the findings last week.
Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen to electrical power and water with no air pollution, hazardous waste or noise.
"Traditionally, fuel cells employ expensive platinum-based electrocatalysts, which cost about $4,000 for a passenger car," Dai said. "The goal is to reduce the major cost of a fuel cell in order to compete with current market technologies, including gasoline engines. Our finding is a major breakthrough toward commercialization of fuel cell technology for various applications."
Dai said those applications could someday include electric and hybrid vehicles, submarines that could operate silently underwater for weeks, airplanes powered by only a fuel cell and lightweight batteries, power plants, notebook computers, portable charging docks for electronics, and power-hogging smart phones with large displays and elaborate features like GPS.
"The importance of developing new types of energy is evident from the fact that global energy consumption has been accelerating at an alarming rate due to rapid economic expansion worldwide, increase in world population and ever-increasing human reliance on energy-based appliances," Dai said. "As we become more aware of 'greenhouse gases' and their detrimental effects on our planet, clean and renewable energy alternatives like fuel cells become more important than ever."
Dai also believes the role of nitrogen-doping, or adding nitrogen to carbon nanotubes, could be applied to the development of new materials for applications beyond fuel cells.
Michael Durstock in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Zhenhai Xia in the University of Akron department of mechanical engineering, and Kuanping Gong and Feng Du in the University of Dayton departments of chemical and materials engineering contributed to the report. Dai also has joint appointment in the University of Dayton's chemistry department, the University of Dayton Research Institute and the Institute for Development Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology.
Dai has been a co-author of two Science articles since last October.
####
For more information, please click here
Copyright © PR Newswire Association LLC.
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Discoveries
Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes April 5th, 2024
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Energy
Development of zinc oxide nanopagoda array photoelectrode: photoelectrochemical water-splitting hydrogen production January 12th, 2024
Shedding light on unique conduction mechanisms in a new type of perovskite oxide November 17th, 2023
Inverted perovskite solar cell breaks 25% efficiency record: Researchers improve cell efficiency using a combination of molecules to address different November 17th, 2023
The efficient perovskite cells with a structured anti-reflective layer – another step towards commercialization on a wider scale October 6th, 2023
Fuel Cells
Current and Future Developments in Nanomaterials and Carbon Nanotubes: Applications of Nanomaterials in Energy Storage and Electronics October 28th, 2022
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
Premium Products | ||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||