Patent of the Month – October 2024
Improving the hydrogen fuel cell towards a zero-carbon future
A nanotechnology solutions company headquartered in Singapore came up with a solution to improve the electrode plates used in hydrogen fuels for energy generation. For the uninitiated, hydrogen fuel cells hold great promise towards the world’s collective vision of a zero-carbon future, being more energy efficient compared to fossil fuels and with almost zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, before the advent of the company’s invention, a typical hydrogen fuel cell would be plagued with issue of corrosion of its electrode plates due to reactivity to acids. As such, the electrode plates are commonly coated with gold, which, while addressing the issue of corrosion, increases costs significantly and compromise conductivity of the plate towards carrying out the intended function of providing electrical energy.
By coating the electrodes with carbon, specifically a specific form of carbon known as amorphous carbon, this enables the electrodes to maintain good conductivity for energy generation while still being protected from corrosion, and is a more economical solution as compared to gold coatings. The Singapore company has thus addressed the need to balance the requirement of the electrode plates having both corrosion resistance and efficient conductivity.
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