Public Release: 

Superior hydrogen catalyst just grows that way

Sandia, University of California project aim at reducing cost of hydrogen fuel cells

DOE/Sandia National Laboratories


IMAGE: These inorganic 'flowers,' color added, were created by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Stanley Chou and University of California, Merced colleague Vincent Tung in a spray-printing process that uses molybdenum disulfide... view more 

Credit: courtesy, Sandia National Laboratories

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Replacing your everyday gas guzzler with a hydrogen fueled car could drastically reduce your carbon footprint. So why don't we all make the switch?

One of reasons we don't is the expensive platinum catalyst required to operate hydrogen fuel cells efficiently.

Research led by Sandia National Laboratories and the University of California, Merced aim at bringing down the cost of hydrogen fuel cells by using a dirt-cheap compound to create an uneven surface that resembles a plant's leaves. The additional area helps catalyze hydrogen almost as efficiently as platinum.

Lead researchers Stanley Chou, a Sandia materials scientist, and UC Merced's Vincent Tung have applied for a joint patent for the spray-printing process, which uses inexpensive molybdenum disulfide. The increased surface area of the rippling "leaf" creates three times as many catalytic contact points as other molybdenum disulfide structures, and the new creation can handle higher temperatures than platinum without sintering and gumming up the cell.


Nature as an ally

The production method uses nature as an ally rather than a hindrance, Chou said. "In traditional thinking, forces such as gravity, viscosity and surface tension must be overcome to achieve the manufactured shapes you desire. We thought, instead of thinking these forces as limitations, why not use them to do something useful? So, we did."

Tung said the method uses natural processes to produce materials for extremely inexpensive fuel cell terminals to liberate hydrogen. "The printing process also allows for continued deposition, with the ability to scale for industry," he said.



"We see our catalyst as an inorganic material acting like a plant. The nanostructures, like leaves, are varied in shape, with tiny rises and falls," he said. "The structures take in an external material to produce hydrogen rather than oxygen, and one day may be powered by sunlight." Right now, very low-voltage electricity does the job.




The work at Sandia was funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Work at UC Merced was supported by a university startup fund.


