Durability Issue Addressed for Hydrogen Car Fuel Cells

As one of the most promising green technologies that we have, the use of hydrogen fuel cells in cars is a huge deal. This could be the industry change that allows us to move into an era whereby we can move away from having to use expensive, non-sustainable sources for fuel. However, one problem that has lingered in the hydrogen fuel cell industry so far has been durability. Durability is a major part of any kind of fuel cell, and historically hydrogen cars have had issues by fuel cells that lack durability.

Now, I’ve talked about durability for fuel cells in the past. But, the subject is worth revisiting.

These durability problems tend to become very expensive and can limit the chance for progress in the industry. However, that might be about to change thanks to the work by scientific experts at the Materials Science and Engineering at POSTECH. Research experts led by Professor Yong-Tae Kim and Sang Moon Jung managed to come up with a system that could change everything in terms of durability for fuel cells.

They used a catalyst that is able to combine platinum and hydrogen tungsten bronze. This helps to avoid the corrosion issue that has damaged the progress of fuel cells. This means that when the car is shut down, the durability limits that used to lead to damage has finally been resolved. The catalyst, that was introduced in the Nature Catalysis journal, was able to promote hydrogen oxidation and also suppress oxygen reduction reactions. This is great news in our race to create sustainable technology.

As we continue to march towards making hydrogen cars commonplace, the excitement comes from the fact that fuel cell performance is improving all the time. Competition is growing, too, meaning even more people are working on making hydrogen fuel cells a mainstream reality.

What does this mean?

In short, scientists have managed to overcome one of the most pertinent issues when it comes to using hydrogen fuel cells in cars. This could give us a solution that allows us to start making more of this unique and powerful resource. Over time, the hope is that it could be used to help give you a durable car that could be run using hydrogen fuel cells without the massive upfront expense and long-term management costs.

It’s for this reason that many people today are excited about what comes next. This development is one to be excited about and it could be a vital next step in ensuring that in the future we can start to see more progress from the hydrogen fuel cell industry. It offers one of the most exciting and promising solutions to getting rid of our dependency on fossil fuels. If we can make durable, affordable hydrogen cars a genuine reality, it could be a long-term net gain for humanity.

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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-scientists-durability-issue-fuel-cells.html