In a study published in the journal Communications Chemistry on Feb. 3, Professor Nagahiro Hoshi, along with Masashi Nakamura, Ryuta Kubo and Rui Suzuki, all from the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University, Japan, have found that adding caffeine to certain platinum electrodes can increase the activity of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). This discovery has the potential to reduce platinum requirements, making fuel cells more affordable and efficient, the researchers said.
According to the researchers, fuel cells are expensive due to high catalyst requirements to increase the ORR activity. They found that adding caffeine to the electrodes can improve the ORR activity of platinum electrodes by 11 times. This discovery can enhance the efficiency of the fuel cell, reduce the requirement for excess platinum catalysts and ultimately lead to cheaper and more efficient fuel cells, the researchers added.
Click to read more about this discovery that can enhance the efficiency of the fuel cell from our sister publication The Buzz EV News.
