Achievement

IGERT fellow Raymond Burns developed a synthetic method for making new catalyst supports for hydrogen fuel cells. Hydrogen fuel cells are a potential replacement for 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 nanoscale where chemistry is used to make electricity by catalytic oxidation of hydrogen. Carbon, the current support material, corrodes after only a short time in a fuel cell. New corrosion-resistant, electrically-conducting supports are needed that can survive long operating times in fuel cells. In his method, Burns uses simple, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly chemistry to make nanopowders of complex transition metal nitrides. These metal nitrides possess the corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity that are needed for fuel cell catalyst supports.