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Current commercially available fuel cells use platinum nanoparticles as the catalyst to speed up the chemical reaction because platinum is the only metal that can resist the highly acidic conditions inside such a cell. However, the widespread use of fuel cells has been impeded by the high cost of platinum and its low stability. To overcome this limitation, a team of researchers led by IBN Executive Director Professor Jackie Y. Ying has discovered that by replacing the central part of the catalyst with gold and copper alloy and leaving just the outer layer in platinum, the new hybrid material can provide 5 times higher activity and much greater stability than the commercial platinum catalyst. With further optimization, it would be possible to further increase the material‘s catalytic properties.
IBN’s new nanocomposite material can produce at least 0.571 amperes of electric current per miligram of platinum, compared to 0.109 amperes per milligram of platinum for commercial platinum catalysts. To make this catalyst more active than the commercial platinum catalyst, the researchers have designed the core of the nanocrsytalline material to be a gold-copper alloy.
Jinhua Yang, Xiaojun Chen, Xianfeng Yang, Jackie Y. Ying. Stabilization and compressive strain effect of AuCu core on Pt shell for oxygen reduction reaction, In: Energy & Environmental Science, Advance Article, July 24, 2012, DOI:10.1039/C2EE22172A: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C2EE22172A
Silver nanoparticles can have a severe environmental impact if their utilization in clothing continues to increase. If everyone buys one silver nanoparticle-treated sock a year, the silver concentration in waste water treatment plant sludge can double. If the sludge is subsequently used as fertilizer, the silver can cause long-term damage to agricultural land. These are the results of a study conducted at Chalmers University of Technology.
http://www.chalmers.se/en/Pages/default.aspx
Researchers from A*STAR’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME) have developed the first compact high performance silicon-based cavity-backed slot (CBS) antenna that operates at 135 GHz. The antenna demonstrated 30 times stronger signal transmission over on-chip antennas at 135 GHz.