[font face=Serif]Public release date: 5-Jun-2013

Contact: Kevin Mayhood
kevin.mayhood@case.edu
216-368-4442
Case Western Reserve University

[font size=5]Metal-free catalyst outperforms platinum in fuel cell[/font]

[font size=4]Researchers now optimizing cheap, easy-to-make alternative[/font]

[font size=3]Researchers from South Korea, Case Western Reserve University and University of North Texas have discovered an inexpensive and easily produced catalyst that performs better than platinum in oxygen-reduction reactions.

The finding, detailed in Nature's Scientific Reports online today, is a step toward eliminating what industry regards as the largest obstacle to large-scale commercialization of fuel cell technology.

Fuel cells can be more efficient than internal combustion engines, silent, and at least one type produces zero greenhouse emissions at the tail pipe. Car and bus manufacturers as well as makers of residential and small-business-sized generators have been testing and developing different forms of fuel cells for more than a decade but the high cost and insufficiencies of platinum catalysts have been the Achilles heel.

"We made metal-free catalysts using an affordable and scalable process," said Liming Dai, the Kent Hale Smith Professor of macromolecular science and engineering at Case Western Reserve and one of the report's authors. "The catalysts are more stable than platinum catalysts and tolerate carbon monoxide poisoning and methanol crossover."

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