Hydrogen cars quickened by Copenhagen chemists (sic)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2013/2013.7/hydrogencars/

[font face=Serif]21 July 2013

[font size=5]Hydrogen cars quickened by Copenhagen chemists[/font]

[font size=3]Green cars Climate friendly fuel cells for hydrogen cars have come one step closer. Researchers at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, have shown how to build fuel cells that produce as much electricity as current models, but require markedly less of the rare and valuable precious metal platinum. Their discovery was published in the highly reputable periodical Nature Materials.[/font]

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[font size=4]Reduced need for metal increases economic yield[/font]

[font size=3]Matthias Arenz is an associate professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen. In collaboration with researchers from the Technical University München and the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research in Düsseldorf he has built and tested a number of catalysts, the devices at the heart of a fuel cell. Arenz is confident that his discovery can show the way for economically viable fuel cell production.

-In the lab we have shown, that we can generate the same amount of electricity with just a fifth of the platinum. We don’t expect to do quite that well in an everyday situation, but a marked reduction in platinum need is certainly realistic. And that will be a huge financial advantage.

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[font size=4]Unexpected effect discovered by chance[/font]

[font size=3]The key factor leading to platinum savings might never have been discovered by the group. They had produced a number of catalysts with varying sizes of platinum particles. By chance the particles were very tightly packed on a few of the sample catalysts and as it turned out, the packing of the particles was much more significant than the size. An effect, that the researchers have dubbed the “Particle Proximity Effect”.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3712

[wercal]

1. I hate to be Debbie Downer...

...but ask yourself 'where does hydrogen come from'.

The hydrogen used in a fuel cell like this will either come from an inefficient (40 percent) electropysis of water, or as the byproduct of a chemical reaction.

Its not efficient...and when you consider the process necessary to get hydrogen, likely not even as clean as natural gas.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. “Where does hydrogen come from?”

Asking this question on this forum is a bit like asking “Where do babies come from?” on a human sexuality forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112749822

Catalysts are used to increase the efficiency of water splitting. There are many researchers producing highly efficient catalysts for this purpose.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/21929
http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=11531
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