[font face=Serif][font size=5]Can cobalt-graphene catalyst beat platinum?[/font]

October 16, 2012 | Contact: Kevin Stacey | 401-863-3766

[font size=4] Platinum works well as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells, but it has at least two drawbacks: It is expensive, and it degrades over time. Brown chemists have engineered a cheaper and more durable catalyst using graphene, cobalt, and cobalt-oxide — the best nonplatinum catalyst yet. Their report appears in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.[/font]

[font size=3]PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Brown University) — There’s a new contender in the race to find an inexpensive alternative to platinum catalysts for use in hydrogen fuel cells.

Brown University chemist Shouheng Sun and his students have developed a new material — a graphene sheet covered by cobalt and cobalt-oxide nanoparticles — that can catalyze the oxygen reduction reaction nearly as well as platinum does and is substantially more durable.

The new material “has the best reduction performance of any nonplatinum catalyst,” said Shaojun Guo, postdoctoral researcher in Sun’s lab and lead author of a paper published today in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

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