Seen heare is MIT Professor Harry Tuller with postdoc Han Gil Seo, one of the contributors to this new work. Credit: Hendrik Wulfmeier
The adoption rate of fuel cells has increased owing to the rising need for clean energy.
In a research that could jump-start the work on a range of technologies, including fuel cells, which are key to storing solar and wind energy, MIT researchers have found a simple way to significantly increase the lifetimes of fuel cells and other devices – changing the pH of the system.
Fuel/electrolysis cells made of materials known as solid metal oxides are in interest for several reasons. In electrolysis mode, they are very efficient at converting electricity from a renewable source into a storable fuel like hydrogen or methane. This storable fuel can be used in the fuel cell mode to generate electricity when the sun is not shining, or the wind isn’t…