Nonprecious-Metal Catalysts for Low-Cost Fuel Cells

摘要

For a long time it has been the dream of scientists to convert chemical bond energy into electrical energy without the need for combustion. While Alessandro Volta (1799) and Michael Faraday (1832) established the scientific principles of such a process, the German-Swiss scientist Christian Friedrich Schonbein and the British lawyer and scientist William Grove demonstrated in 1839 that electricity could be generated from hydrogen and oxygen. Even today the device for this purpose, the fuel cell, is still considered one of the most promising energy-conversion technologies available. In recent decades, fuel cell technology has been undergoing revolutionary developments, but nearly 170 years after the first demonstration by Grove, the practical use of fuel cells in our daily life is rare when compared with the battery technology that is in widespread use.