A new process for fabricating super-thin fuel cells might make the cells commercially viable as energy sources, a team of researchers reported.
Fuel cells mix hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity.
The new cell is a thin layer of gas-permeable membrane sandwiched between two platinum films, which act as electrodes. When one electrode was exposed to a mixture of air and hydrogen at room temperature, research leader C.K. Dyer wrote, the cell produced as much as one volt of electricity. Fuel cells are more efficient than heat engines and could be used to power electric cars - if the cells could be produced inexpensively.