Public Lecture—A Blueprint for New Fuel Cell Catalysts

Lecture Date: Tuesday, March 26th. Daniel Friebel, a SLAC associate staff scientist who studies chemical processes involving catalysts, delivered the March 26 SLAC Public Lecture, “A Blueprint for New Fuel Cell Catalysts.”

Friebel’s talk details how X-ray research at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, coupled with sophisticated computations at SLAC’s SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, are fostering a greater understanding of chemical processes at work in fuel cells.

Fuel cells rely on catalysts to create electricity from fuel sources such as hydrogen or methanol.

Friebel explains that fuel cells show promise as a source of clean, renewable energy for autos, but current designs need too much costly platinum as a catalyst to split oxygen molecules and burn the fuel. Cheaper catalysts must be found to make the design more viable.

His research at SSRL using X-ray spectroscopy to show bond-breaking and bond-making at work in chemical reactions has explored how the surface of platinum samples react with oxygen. That work, in combination with computer calculations, is providing a blueprint for a new, highly active fuel cell catalyst that uses a far smaller amount of platinum in special atomic configurations, and could pave the way for less expensive fuel cells. Lecturer: Daniel Friebel, SLAC
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This session is about the working of fuel cells. Electrochemical reaction which occur in Hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell and Hydrocarbon-Oxygen fuel is also explained.
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23 thoughts on “Public Lecture—A Blueprint for New Fuel Cell Catalysts”

  1. Try applying a high frequency pulse-voltage to resonate with the electron's movement around the nucleus to increase efficiency.

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  2. Daniel Friebel, it is not 'X-ray', but it is Roentgen radiation or Röntgen radiation. There is noting 'X' about this type of radiation, the investigation is long closed. The stubbornness of Anglo-Saxons to keep using the obviously wrong name is in itself worthy of an X-file by Mulder and Skully.

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  3. There has been a similar reaction in terms of heat produced with common water or even salt water toward what has been traditionally thought of as cold fusion [Pons and Fleischman experiment resulting in heat energy using palladium].

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  4. Well that was really informative. Daniel raises a valid point too at 1:05:12 regrading combusting H2 vs electro-chemical energy extraction as combustion will still create that familiar smog we see around the major cities.

    Just wondering though recently I've heard about the use of graphene flakes with halogen coated edges, particularly iodine as an efficient and cheaper catalyst, is there any investigation at SLAC pursuing this too?

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