Material scientists from UCLA and Johns Hopkins make breakthrough in understanding long-term fuel cell effectiveness

By integrating laboratory-made experiments with computer simulation studies, materials scientists from UCLA and Johns Hopkins University made a major leap in potentially increasing the durability of fuel cells. Fuel cells convert chemical energy into electricity and offer promise as a clean alternative fuel replacement for cars.

What has stopped scientists from realizing this potential is a cost-effective solution to making fuel cells durable – lasting a total of 8,000 hours of a target that was more than 3,000 hours away from best performance. The breakthrough by the research team was the introduction of a new element that increases the durability and efficiency.

The results were published in the journal Matter.

The study was supported by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation  and was authored by: 

Yu Huang (principal investigator and professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering)
Liang Cao (postdoctoral scholar, Johns Hopkins University)
Zeyan Liu (co-first author and doctoral student, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering)
Tim Mueller (professor of materials science and engineering, Johns Hopkins University)
Zipeng Zhao (postdoctoral scholar of materials science and engineering, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering)

Read more at UCLA Samueli Newsroom.