Researchers Develop Highly Active Sub-nanometer Platinum Catalysts for Fuel Cells
22 July 2009
Researchers at Keio University in Japan have developed sub-nanometer platinum clusters with very high catalytic activity for the four-electron reduction of oxygen molecules. This could lead to a significant reduction in the amount of platinum needed in fuel cells. They presented their work in a paper published online in the journal Nature Chemistry.
With clusters incorporating 12 atoms of platinum, the catalytic current produced was 13 times that of commercial platinum nanoparticles, themselves containing hundreds or even thousands of atoms. According to the researchers, the improved performance is probably not due to a simple increase in surface area but to quantum size effects that are not yet fully understood.
Further improvement could come with the incorporation of a second metal into the platinum-based clusters.
Resources
K Yamamoto et al. (2009) Size-specific catalytic activity of platinum clusters enhances oxygen reduction reactions Nature Chemistry, doi: 10.1038/NCHEM.288
Fuel cell catalysts go sub-nano (Chemistry World)
Perhaps it is related to cold fusion. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 22 July 2009 at 03:06 PM
Yes Henry. It sounds like so many of these experiments (readily reproducible) where a platinum wire is used to create a plasma that appears to exhibit exothermic energy in excess of input energy. Weird.
Posted by: sulleny | 22 July 2009 at 07:21 PM
This research result can have far more important implication than just for FC. Platinum catalyst is used on nearly all ICE vehicles nowaday. Better use of noble metal catalysts can revolutionize the synthetic chemical industry.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 22 July 2009 at 10:19 PM