Potentially less expensive hydrogen-based energy: Catalyst performance in fuel cells may be predicted

 

 Catalyst performance in fuel cells may be predicted

The researchers created a mechanism for forecasting the potency and stability of platinum alloys, two essential markers of how well they would function as catalysts in hydrogen fuel cells. Then, using that method, scientists created an alloy that performed superbly under circumstances that were close to those seen in real-world use. In the journal Nature Catalysis, the findings are presented.

According to corresponding author Yu Huang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, "we can't keep living the way we do for the sustainability of our planet, and reinventing energy is one major way to change our path." "Fuel cell vehicles already exist, but their price has to be reduced. In this work, we developed a method to help scientists find the appropriate catalysts considerably more quickly."

Fuel cells use hydrogen and atmospheric oxygen to produce electricity. Breaking the bonds between pairs of oxygen atoms using a catalyst is an important stage in the procedure. The most effective catalysts are those that can drive the reaction and are stable enough to be employed over an extended length of time. Finding the optimum catalysts has also proven to be a significant difficulty for those developing fuel cells.

Although platinum is the greatest material for the job, its scarcity renders the technology too expensive for widespread use. There has never been a viable, real-world way for swiftly determining which alloy would form the greatest catalyst. A platinum alloy with a more affordable metal or metals would lower the cost.

So far, technological advancements have been the product of trial and error.

According to Alessandro Fortunelli of Italy's National Research Council, co-corresponding author of the paper, "this is a decisive step forward toward the rational design, down to the microscopic scale, of catalysts with optimal performance." Nobody has ever developed a method to predict the stability of platinum alloy catalysts, either theoretically or experimentally.

The new technique forecasts the stability and potency of platinum alloy catalysts. It was created by combining experiments, intricate computation, and X-ray spectroscopy, which enabled the researchers to precisely identify chemical characteristics.

Based on their experimental measurement, the researchers then developed catalysts that included exact concentrations of platinum, nickel, and cobalt in a certain atomic structure and arrangement. They demonstrated that the alloy they developed had an uncommon but crucial combination of being extremely active and highly stable for fuel cell catalysts.

According to Huang, the technique might be used to create platinum-based catalysts that include a variety of other metals than nickel and cobalt.

Chemist Qingying Jia of Northeastern University and theorist William Goddard of Caltech are the other co-corresponding authors on the work. The success of the study, according to Huang, whose UCLA group was principally in charge of creating and testing the catalyst, depended on cooperation among engineers and scientists from other universities.

She remarked, "Without any of these collaborators, our effort would be impossible." "The most crucial factor in a long-term, curiosity-driven cooperation like this one is having the appropriate individuals. We were all intent on looking deeply and attempting to understand what was going on. The fact that this was an enjoyable crew to work with also contributed."