Materials Science & Engineering alum Shanmukh Kutagulla and current student Patrick Carmichael are the lead authors on a new collaborative paper, out in ACS Nano, that presents a novel solution to problems that plague hydrogen fuel cells. Commonly used as an alternative to fossil fuels, hydrogen fuel cells currently have issues with hydrogen "leaking" through the membrane, lowering the efficiency and performance.
Under the direction of Deji Akinwande, the team used pulsed laser deposition (PLD) to grow boron nitride directly on the membrane of fuel cells, helping to block the "leaking" hydrogen but allowing the protons and water to move through the membrane.
Not only did their PLD method reduce hydrogen leakage, but it also improved the membrane's proton conductance. Compared with the industry standard currently in use, the team's method resulted in 20% higher power density under normal operating conditions while reducing hydrogen leakage by 32%. The PLD technique works at room temperature and can be scaled up for larger production, making it easier, cheaper, and more practical than older approaches.
Collaborators include Robert Vajtai and Pulickel Ajayan and a member of his research group from Rice University, Abhijit Biswas; Brian A. Korgel and members of his research group in UT's McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, including Nam Hoang Le and Isabel Caldino Bohn; Devi Mutyala from the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences; Tanguy Terlier from the SIMS laboratory at Rice University, and Narayana Aluru from the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering.To read more, see their article, "Room-Temperature Pulsed Laser Deposition of Boron Nitride for Enhanced Fuel Cell Selectivity," in ACS Nano.
