Bio-inspired molecular catalysts could replace the platinum currently used in fuel cell anodes at a lower cost and thus remove a financial obstacle to the development of electricity production from hydrogen.
To be effective, these catalysts must be immobilized on their support while maintaining a mobile and flexible structure, which is essential for their catalytic function. Teams from IRIG have developed an optimized bio-inspired catalyst anode using nano-characterization techniques to precisely observe its surface.
With the help of a team from SCBM (MTS department) specialized in the chemical functionalization of nanomaterials, they were able to finely control the catalyst surface concentration and gained a factor of 20 in efficiency compared to their previous results.