Methanol is an organic substance that is a colorless and poisonous liquid. It is used as a fuel in the world: for cars, trucks, public transport, ships, construction, quarry and agricultural machinery, kitchen stoves, for generating electricity. Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless and tasteless, non—toxic gas that is flammable when mixed with air or oxygen and is also used as a fuel (for example, rocket fuel).
"Hydrogen-air and methanol fuel cells are considered to be among the promising alternatives to traditional energy sources. However, the methanol oxidation reaction is slow, which limits the power of the device. A special feature of our research was the development of a universal catalyst. The approach made it possible to optimize the structure of the catalyst so that the active sites where oxidation reactions occur are maximally accessible to the reagents," said Kirill Paperzh, a junior researcher at the Laboratory of Technology for the Synthesis of Catalytically Active Materials at the SFU Faculty of Chemistry.
The development can be implemented in autonomous sources of electricity at low temperatures and in remote areas of our country: portable chargers, forklifts, various equipment powered by electricity, etc. Thanks to the work of scientists, the cost of fuel installations for such devices can be significantly reduced, the SFU added.
"The scientists were able to test the catalysts in single fuel cells and prove the high efficiency of the materials obtained compared to commercial analogues," said Anastasia Alekseenko, a leading researcher at the SFU laboratory.
In the tests of the methanol fuel cell, the new Russian catalyst demonstrated twice the maximum power than its commercial imported counterparts, concluded laboratory researcher Yulia Pankova.
The results of the study, supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF), are published in the Journal of Power Sources.
