Achievement

IGERT Fellow Raymond Burns developed a synthetic method for making new catalyst supports for hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are of great interest to replace the internal combustion engine in cars, but many challenges must be overcome to make fuel cells cheaper and more efficient. The catalyst support is important because it provides electrical contact all the way to the atomic level where chemistry is used to make electricity, two electrons at a time. Carbon, the current support material, corrodes after only a short time in a fuel cell, and therefore new corrosion resistant, electrically conducting supports are needed that can survive long operating lifetimes in fuel cells. In his method, Raymond uses simple, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly chemistry to make nanopowders of complex transition metal nitrides. These metal nitrides possess the corrosion resistance and conduction properties needed for fuel cell catalyst supports.