PatIntNews

Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a stainless steel bristle brush catalyst that would replace the expensive platinum in microbial fuel cells.

Microbial fuel cells' efficiency can be improved by adding a small jolt of electricity at the cathode, while the bacteria feed at the anode. Until now, platinum, an expensive precious metal, was known to be the best cathode material and the requirement for platinum had been holding back development of microbial fuel cells.

Bruce Logan and his team discovered that a stainless steel brush works just as efficiently as platinum and the cost of the cathode could be cut downed by more than 80 percent.

The stainless steel was made into a effective catalyst by arranging the stainless steel in the shape of a bristle brush with densely packed bristles and thus increasing the surface area of the cathode. The team indicated that further improvement could be achieved by making modifications such as minimizing the hydrogen bubbles that get trapped between the bristles.