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To make the catalyst, Adzic deposited tiny clusters of platinum and rhodium on tin oxide nanoparticles. In earlier studies, rhodium had been shown to break bonds between carbon atoms, but only if vaporized at high temperatures in an ultrahigh vacuum. The combination of rhodium with the tin oxide allowed it to break these bonds as a solid and at the relatively low temperatures needed for portable fuel cells. The platinum plays a key role in producing protons and electrons from hydrogen atoms in ethanol.
Significant challenges remain before the catalyst can be commercialized in ethanol fuel cells. In addition to facing the challenges of incorporating it into fuel cells and engineering these to produce electricity efficiently at high currents, the researchers will need to find ways to reduce costs. Rhodium is the most expensive precious metal--it's even more expensive than platinum--so it will either need to be replaced with another element, or techniques must be developed to reduce the amount of rhodium required.
Still, the new catalyst is a significant improvement over previous attempts. "Breaking the carbon-carbon bond at low temperatures is an extremely hard problem," Herring says. "The fact that [Adzic] is breaking that bond is pretty exciting." But he adds that "it's just one step on the pathway toward this dream of a direct ethanol fuel cell."
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RD
212 Comments
Corrosive Ethanol is BAD
Quick focusing on ethanol! It has a short storage life, is corrosive, absorbs water, and has lower energy. Focus on better fuels such as less water absorbing and gas compatible isobutanol or propanol. I struggled again this weekend with water in my equipment's fuel. I had to replace the gas with fresher gas, which apparently because it was 2 months old, also had some water in it. I've already lost a piece of equipment because ethanol ate the fuel system. Imagine all the potential legal liability for failed backup generators, stranded boats, and destroyed equipment because of ethanol.
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gagarcia
2 Comments
Re: Corrosive Ethanol is BAD
Ethanol is a common and widespread fuel in Brasil, widely used. The issues concerning corrosive effects were solved by the automotive industry a decade ago. I have a flexfuel car that runs with gasoline or ethanol or any mixture. Cars that run with ethanol actually last longer than the older ones that runs on gasoline.
Ethanol also is a very good additive to be used with gasoline( higher octanes ), in place of more toxic and polluting substances like leaded gasoline. Also in Brasil a liter of ethanol can be produced for something like U$ 0,35 (dollar),
very cheap. Several new technological improvements promise to halve that price in the near future. So, it is not so BAD , after all.
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