MOSCOW, April 5 Scientists from the Samara Polytechnic University have found a new material with unique properties needed to create more efficient fuel cells. According to them, the connection differs from the analogues used in relatively low cost. The results are published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry С.
Fuel cells (FC) are relatively mobile systems that produce electricity and heat. According to scientists, they are capable of both replacing a generator on a camping trip and playing the role of a megawatt-class power plant.
Energy is extracted in them due to the electrochemical interaction of gas-fuel and gas-oxidizer through a solid electrolyte. The most promising hydrogen-air fuel cells use atmospheric oxygen as an oxidizing agent, which reacts with hydrogen during the operation of the cell, forming water.
< /span>
For the efficient operation of the cell, the electrolyte must have a high anionic conductivity and not have any other. Today, the most common electrolyte materials are yttria-stabilized zirconium dioxide or perovskites, the scientists noted.
A team of chemists from the Samara Polytechnic University together with colleagues, using supercomputer simulation, has identified a new substance with the properties necessary for fuel cell — magnocolumbite MgNb2O6. According to them, the compound differs from the electrolytes used by its relatively low cost.
“Magnocolumbit has only anionic conductivity. Very few such materials are known, and the one we found is a promising candidate for the development of fuel cell technologies,” said a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Mathematical modeling materials of the Samara Polytechnic Artem Kabanov.
As explained by the authors work, anionic conductivity is due to the presence of defects in the crystal lattice, due to which more mobile ions «jump» to a vacant position nearby, freeing their own.
As the scientists emphasized, at the stage of computer modeling, a unique technique was used, previously developed at the Samara Polytechnic University. Experimental analysis, according to them, fully confirmed the exceptional properties of magnocolumbite and its modifications, predicted theoretically. ://ria.ru/20221202/urfu-1835810391.html» data->
«The reaction in a fuel cell occurs only at a high temperature, so the electrolyte must be resistant to it. Magnocolumbite in this aspect has shown itself to be no worse than perovskites or a compound based on zirconium and yttrium. In addition, magnocolumbite is resistant to the aggressive environment of a fuel cell and has a suitable linear coefficient expansion,» said Artem Kabanov.
The use of magnocolumbites is possible not only in fuel cells, but also, for example, in gas analyzers, the scientists reported. Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of High-Temperature Electrochemistry of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The work was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, project No. 19-73-10026 П.
In the future, the research team intends to continue developments in the field of fuel cells and prepare an electrolyte based on magnocolumbite for industrial implementation.