from the polyhedral-nanoframes-of-bimetallic-nanocrystals dept.
AnonTechie writes:
"A big step in the development of next-generation fuel cells and water-alkali electrolyzers has been achieved with the discovery of a new class of bimetallic nanocatalysts that are an order of magnitude higher in activity than the target set by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for 2017.
The new catalysts, hollow polyhedral nanoframes of platinum and nickel, feature a three-dimensional catalytic surface activity that makes them significantly more efficient and far less expensive than the best platinum catalysts used in today's fuel cells and alkaline electrolyzers. This research was a collaborative effort between DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).
Fuel cells and electrolyzers can help meet increasing demands for electrical power while reducing the emission of carbon and other atmospheric pollutants. These technologies are based on either the oxygen reduction reaction (fuel cells), or the hydrogen evolution reaction (electrolyzers). Currently, the best electrocatalyst for both reactions consists of platinum nanoparticles dispersed on carbon. Though quite effective, the high cost and limited availability of platinum makes large-scale use of this approach a major challenge for both stationary and portable electrochemical applications."
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 07 2014, @02:37AM
(sarcasm mode)
Now the environmentalists will join in:
1. Mining for platinum is an environmentally bad move. This will increase platinum usage.
2. Nanoparticles have unknown effect, so we should study them more.
3. Alkaline is not good for my skin, so it must not be used
4. I have no idea what is an electrolyzer, but since electricity can kill, we should ban it.
In any case, whatever is different from what I have now is not good and the Earth should never be impacted by all these activities....
(For any humor impaired people.... please don't jerk your knee!)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mattyk on Friday March 07 2014, @03:46AM
> (For any humor impaired people.... please don't jerk your knee!)
How about for the humour normative who just don't find the post funny? Insulting and/or mocking a group of people based on a stereotype, fictional or otherwise, provides... limited humour at best.
Also, your parenthetical essentially says, "I know this isn't funny, but if you mod it down it's because you're 'humor impaired'." Not cool.
_MattyK_
(Score: 1) by Angry Jesus on Friday March 07 2014, @02:45PM
I thought the post was a parody of knee-jerk fox-viewer types.
It is hard to see "Alkaline is not good for my skin, so it must not be used" as anything other than someone grasping at straws and being held back by their own bias.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mrchew1982 on Friday March 07 2014, @04:13AM
"the high cost and limited availability of platinum makes large-scale use of this approach a major challenge for both stationary and portable electrochemical applications."
"The new catalysts, hollow polyhedral nanoframes of platinum and nickel"
Sooo, maybe we should try to not use platinum in the next one?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by CoolHand on Friday March 07 2014, @02:07PM
I'm guessing that "hollow polyhedral nanoframes of platinum and nickel" catalysts use far less platinum than "platinum" catalysts.
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 3, Informative) by wjwlsn on Friday March 07 2014, @06:16PM
Quoth TFA:
I am a traveler of both time and space. Duh.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by TheLink on Friday March 07 2014, @05:52AM
That way you can leverage existing fuel infra (but probably need some filters to prevent poisoning of any catalysts used with stuff like maybe sulfur).