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Carbon nanotubes tapped for portable fuel cell plan
By Chappell Brown , EE Times
October 19, 2004 (12:29 PM EDT)


PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Carbon nanotubes play a pivotal role in a three-company effort to create small-scale fuel cells for portable electronics.


The project, which recently received $3.6 million in funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, looks to establish a low-cost manufacturable hydrogen fuel cell based on proton-exchange membranes, or PEMs.


The work is being conducted by Carbon Nanotechnologies, Motorola Labs and Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells.


Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. plans to address the current problems PEM fuel cells have with manufacturing costs and product lifetime by leveraging the unique properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Today, plastic membranes carry platinum as a catalyst to split hydrogen atoms into protons and electrons. The development project will try to replace them with nanostructured membranes, formed from carbon nanotubes that have platinum atoms attached to their walls.


Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Inc. will develop the process for attaching the atoms to the carbon nanotubes, which Carbon Nanotechnologies will then form into micron-thick membranes. The resulting membranes are expected to be tougher and more efficient in generating protons and electrons.


Moreover, by attaching the platinum atoms to the nanotubes in a separate process, the researchers expect to devise a manufacturing process that will bring down the cost of the fuel cells.


Motorola Laboratories will run studies comparing the new carbon nanotube fuel cells with other technologies being developed for small-scale cells.


The carbon nanotube films will be sandwiched between an anode and cathode. Hydrogen enters the cell and its one orbital electron is split off, leaving a hydrogen ion, which is simply a proton. The electrons move off the anode into a wire and flow to the cathode. The protons migrate through the carbon film where they join the electrons at the cathode. If the cathode is exposed to oxygen, the electrons, protons and oxygen form water, which becomes the exhaust from the cell. The net result is a flow of electrons through the wire connecting the anode and cathode, producing a current from the hydrogen fuel.