The operation of a hydrogen fuel cell largely depends on the electrocatalyst. In the majority
The hybrid catalyst described in an article injournal Nature Catalysis, is a mixture of atomically dispersed platinum, individual iron atoms, and nanoparticles of both metals. The study showed that such a composition achieves 3.7 times greater catalytic activity than pure platinum. At the same time, the higher this indicator, the greater the power of the fuel cell, the authors of the work note.
Despite the low content of the preciousmetal, a new hybrid catalyst, maintains platinum activity at 97% after a stress test of 100,000 charge cycles. For traditional analogues, this indicator decreases by 50% or more after 30 thousand cycles.
Change in catalyst performance after 100,000accelerated stress test cycles (left, blue line - baseline, red - after the stress test). The image on the right is the structure of the catalyst. Source: Fei Xiao et al, Nature Catalysis
Hydrogen fuel cell is one optionclean energy. This device converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity with zero emissions of carbon dioxide, particulate matter and other air pollutants. One of the main barriers to the spread of hydrogen elements is the cost of platinum.
Researchers note that many scientistsworked on the creation of alternative electrocatalysts, trying to replace the precious metal with cheap materials, such as iron, nitrogen or carbon. However, all previous designs either produced insufficient power or failed quickly.
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