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American chemist Devinder Mahajan, working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory of the United States, received a patent for the technology of producing "pure" hydrogen, intended for use in fuel cells. The use of this technology will overcome one of the most serious obstacles to the wide use of fuel cells associated with the prolongation of the life of the catalyst for the reaction of hydrogen with oxygen.
Fuel cells, where the formation of an electric current occurs during the catalytic reaction of hydrogen oxidation, has recently attracted increasing attention from scientists and engineers. Fuel cells are already becoming an alternative to batteries in mobile devices. The developers came close to creating trains and cars on fuel cells.
One of the important points in the use of fuel cells is the complete absence of harmful emissions, since the only product of the reaction is water. However, the lifetime of catalysts is limited, in large part because the hydrogen produced by traditional technology contains significant impurities of carbon monoxide CO, and they lead to the so-called. "Poisoning" the catalyst, in which it loses its activity. Scientists have previously tried to solve this problem by adding other metals, such as ruthenium or molybdenum, to platinum (it is the main component of the catalyst). Another way to get rid of harmful CO was to try to change the conditions for the reaction of hydrogen formation.
Mahajan proposed a new hydrogen purification reaction, where ruthenium trichloride (or some other metals) and a complex nitrogen compound are used as a catalyst. These compounds are dissolved in an aqueous methanol solution, through which hydrogen is passed with a high CO content. The reaction proceeds at a relatively low temperature of 80-150 degrees Celsius. The reaction is that the CO is oxidized to carbon dioxide, with the conversion taking place practically with a 100% yield. And, moreover, in the course of this reaction, additional hydrogen is formed, since water molecules participate in the oxidation process. The reaction takes place in just a few seconds, and as a result, no more than a few CO molecules per million hydrogen molecules remain.
The process, among other things, does not require large material costs. Dr. Mahajan believes that this will help to quickly develop the most promising type of fuel cells with proton-exchange membranes for use in vehicles.
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Date of publication 10.12.2003гг
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