Platinum-Free Fuel Cell Catalyst Hits 902 mW/cm2 Using Blue Pigments

Researchers at Tohoku University, the Technion, and Hokkaido University have developed a carbon-supported blue pigment catalyst that reaches a peak power density of 902 milliwatts per square centimeter in an anion-exchange membrane fuel cell. The material, an iron-based phthalocyanine derivative, does not rely on platinum and outperforms earlier metal phthalocyanine catalysts. The team also tested durability for 35 hours at a constant load of 400 mA/cm2, with an average decay rate of 2.4 mV per hour. The work, published in ACS Catalysis, uses molecular design to strengthen the oxygen reduction reaction at the iron active site. Two catalysts with nearly identical surface areas showed different performance, which allowed the researchers to link the gain to molecular structure rather than particle size. This is an early-stage lab result, not a commercial product, but it points to a possible path toward lower-cost fuel cell cathodes.