Applying precious metal catalysts economically

Researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Fritz Haber Institute Berlin have developed a new method of to conserve rare and expensive catalysts and use them sparingly. They enclosed a precious metal salt in tiny micelles, and struck them against a carbon electrode, thus coating the surface with nanoparticles of the precious metal contained in the micelles. At the same time, the team precisely analysed how much of the metal was deposited. The researchers then showed that the electrode coated in this manner could efficiently catalyse the oxygen reduction, which is the limiting chemical process in fuel cells.