Fuel Cell Advances

[David B. Benson]

'Needle in haystack' discovery in quest to unlock clean energy technology
2020 Mar 03
Phys.org
m.phys.org/news/2020-03-needle-haystack-discovery-quest-energy.html

Fuel cells have to run hot, which is hard on materials. This new chemical enables the fuel cell to operate at 'only' 600 °C.

[engineerpoet]

Mar 4, 2020 14:40:20 GMT 9.5 David B. Benson said:

Fuel cells have to run hot, which is hard on materials.

To be specific, solid-oxide fuel cells have to run hot enough to mobilize oxygen ions in the ceramic electrolyte.  This is the principle that automotive oxygen sensors have long used.  Other hydrogen-ion conductors like Nafion can operate fairly close to room temperature.

How a dual oxygen/hydrogen ion conductor avoids the two ions neutralizing each other on their way through the material I don't know.