Lung-style fuel cell needs less bling for more oomph
A LUNG-inspired hydrogen fuel cell can cut the amount of expensive catalyst needed and increase efficiency, its designers claim.
Despite decades of research, hydrogen fuel cells have failed to replace combustion engines in cars, thanks in large part to the cost of their platinum catalysts, says Signe Kjelstrup at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo.
So Kjelstrup’s team designed a cell that uses less platinum. It uses channels modelled on the bronchial structure of the lungs to supply hydrogen and oxygen gas to their respective electrodes. This helps to spread the gases more uniformly across the catalyst than current channel designs and provides a greater surface area so less platinum is needed, Kjelstrup claims (Energy & Fuels, DOI: 10.1021/ef100610w).
