Nanostructured iridium is model catalyst for fuel cells
March 30, 2005 | Source: KurzweilAI
A major obstacle to establishing the “hydrogen economy” is the safe and cost-effective storage and transport of hydrogen fuel.
Rutgers researchers are developing a possible solution: using iridium as a catalyst to generate hydrogen on-demand in a vehicle from liquid ammonia.
They found that heating the metal iridium in the presence of oxygen changes its shape to make uniform arrays of 5-nanometer-sized pyramids. The finely textured surface can be used to extract hydrogen from ammonia.