How to reduce the consumption of platinum metal in fuel power lithium battery

　　As we all know, fuel power cells are very environmentally friendly because their combustion product is water. Recently, researchers at the University of Copenhagen have made new progress in fuel power cells. Without using precious metal platinum as catalyst, the fuel power cell can also supply the same power as the fuel power cell currently using platinum catalyst. The scientific discovery has been published in the journal Nature Materials.

　　Cheaper hydrogen car and new fuel power cell design

　　Researchers have shown that fuel power cells should replace internal combustion engines as the power source of cars in the future. They have little impact on the climate environment. On the one hand, the fuel utilization rate of fuel power cells is higher; on the other hand, the combustion products do not contain smoke, carbon dioxide and other substances.

　　However, the current technical bottleneck of fuel power cells is that platinum metal catalysts used in them are moderately expensive. This is the biggest obstacle to the development of fuel power cells.

　　Reduce the utilization rate of precious metals

　　Matthias Arenz, associate professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, together with researchers from the Technical University of Munich and the Planck Institute in Dusseldorf, tested a series of different catalysts.

　　He said: "We have found a new method in the laboratory, which uses one fifth of the platinum metal in hydrogen fuel power cells to achieve the same capacitance. Although it may not reach this level in practical applications, it is certain that the new method can greatly reduce the dependence on platinum catalysts. It has taken a big step in reducing the cost of fuel power cells."

　　Platinum is one of the rarest metals on earth. Most platinum metals exist in South Africa, accounting for 80% of the world's total, while Russia accounts for 10% of the world's platinum reserves.

　　In 2012, the global platinum metal output value was 179 tons. The global annual output value of gold reaches 2700 tons. As a comparison, platinum is particularly valuable. An ounce of platinum costs $1600.

　　Sheet, particle or nano particle

　　The fuel power cell uses platinum as catalyst and presents electric energy through hydrogen and oxygen. The best reverberation mode is to cover the platinum metal layer in the reverberation process, but the cost is very high. Therefore, the shape of platinum metal is manufactured into granules in modern fuel power cells. The so-called new approach of the research team is to place the granular platinum metal more scientifically and efficiently.

　　Platinum metal of the same mass has 5 times of electricity

　　During the test, the traditional catalyst can present a current of 1 ampere per milligram. The Copenhagen research team used 1 milligram of platinum metal to generate 8 amperes of current. At first, the researchers thought that this was because the use of smaller particles of platinum presented a higher power yield, but after further observation, they had a more surprising discovery.

　　Fortuitous phenomenon

　　They made platinum metal particles into a series of different sizes. They found that the density of platinum particles was very high on some sample catalysts. Researchers describe it as "particle proximity effect". What researchers need to do next is to use industrial methods to achieve this "particle proximity effect" on a large scale.