U.S. proposes the development of hydrogen energy nano-cell technology

Eduard Karpov, Assistant Professor of Civil and Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, received US$217,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the development of a new type of battery called “catalother mionic generator” for a three-year project.

Similar to solar cells, the new battery has a flat surface that can generate electricity. The difference is that oxidation of hydrogen instead of sunlight powers the electron flow. Unlike traditional hydrogen fuel cell technology, this new method is called "chemovoltaics" and collects the energy of the hydrogenation reaction that takes place on a catalytic metal surface similar to a thin film. Unlike fuel cells, "chemovoltaic" devices can be very small and flat, do not release or absorb heat, and can operate at lower temperatures. The same with the fuel cell is the only byproduct of its energy production process is water.

The device consists of nano-layers of catalytic material on a semiconductor substrate. Karpov and his team will test the structural changes when these nanodevices produce maximum energy. They will also test different types of catalytic materials such as platinum, palladium or certain oxides to see which ones work best, and whether different thicknesses of catalytic materials are different, and investigate the effect of different patterns on the performance of the catalyst surface.

The device was initially available for small military power generators of small size and light weight. With the development of technology, it can be directly connected to a computer chip as a power source, or a micro device such as a nano robot. The main task of the project is to demonstrate that the technology is commercially viable in principle and has the potential to compete with fuel cells.