Fusion of 8 precious metals into alloys: A new future for hydrogen fuel cells

Everyone in the world is aware of the common precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum, but in fact there are all 8 metals in the world that deserve the title of 'precious' because of their rarity, brightness and their practical applications. The remaining five precious metals on this list are palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium and osmium.

The properties of these metals are often enhanced as alloys, where they are mixed with other metals or substances to create materials such as white gold and sterling silver.

Scientists have created an alloy unprecedented in human history.

But now, a team of researchers from Kyoto University has created an alloy unprecedented in human history by combining all eight precious metals into a single alloy.

It's an incredibly difficult task and comparable to trying to mix water, oil, yogurt, tabasco chutney, orange juice, vodka, maple syrup, Kool-Aid grapes, and green tea into one. uniform liquid. Some of them are miscible, but mixing them all together at once is impossible.

To create this unprecedented alloy, the researchers created an ionic-carrying solution of all eight metals in equal amounts and subjected the solution to a reducing agent at 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). ). The reducing agent gives the electrons needed for the different ions to bond and the alloy can be successfully formed.

This is of course easier said than done and has been something that humans have dreamed of but have not been able to do for the past 5,000 years, since the beginning of the Bronze Age.

The results of the study are still not significant enough to be observed. The successful experiment yielded an amount of the alloy that can only be measured in nanometers, equivalent to the scale of DNA strands. However, with the technique they have developed, the team thinks they can mass-produce this alloy with the right budget.

The results of the study are of great interest, as while the feat of creating the new alloy itself is impressive, it also has the potential for life-changing applications.

To date, platinum remains the most common catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells, but in 2020 the team found that an alloy made of platinum and five precious metals is highly efficient. double.

But alloys made of eight precious metals are even more effective. This result shows that the catalytic activity in hydrogen fuel cells increases many times.

This efficiency is achieved when alloying only eight metals in equal quantities is made. By adjusting the relative quantities in different ways, an even more efficient catalyst can be created to enhance the power supply of hydrogen fuel cells, making the use of they widely become a more practical alternative to current polluting fossil energy sources.