MIT Professor Harry Tuller and Postdoctoral Fellow Han Gil Seo in the lab. The two and colleagues report a simple way to significantly increase the lifetimes of fuel cells and other key devices. Credit: Hendrik Wulfmeier
In research that could jumpstart work on a range of technologies including fuel cells, key to storing solar and wind energy, MIT researchers have found a relatively simple way to increase the lifetimes of these devices: changing the “pH” of the system.
Fuel and electrolysis cells made of materials known as solid metal oxides are of interest for several reasons. For example, in the electrolysis mode, they are very efficient at converting…