Imagine a truck that runs on clean energy, almost like magic, with hardly any harmful stuff coming out of the exhaust.
Scientists have made a big breakthrough in making this possible, by creating a special kind of fuel cell that lasts way longer than what we have today.
First, let’s understand what a fuel cell is. Think of it as a special kind of battery. Instead of being charged with electricity, it gets power from hydrogen, a type of gas.
When hydrogen moves through the fuel cell, it creates electricity. This electricity can power vehicles, like trucks.
Now, the exciting part is how scientists made these fuel cells even better. In the past, a big problem was that parts inside the fuel cell could get damaged pretty quickly. When these parts got damaged, the fuel cell didn’t work well.
The main troublemaker was something called carbon, which is a material that was used inside the fuel cell. Carbon gets eaten away over time, making the fuel cell weak.
But scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have come up with a smart solution. They used tiny wires, called “nanowires,” to make a new kind of fuel cell.
These aren’t just any wires. They’re super tiny, even smaller than a strand of hair!
And the magic is in their structure. Each of these nanowires is like a tiny tube with a core made of a special material and an outer layer made of platinum. The best part? There’s no carbon involved. This means these fuel cells don’t get damaged as quickly.
Jacob Spendelow, one of the scientists, explained that these new fuel cells can last much longer and give trucks a lot of energy for a longer time. When they tested these new fuel cells, they were very strong and durable.
After putting them through some tough tests, these new fuel cells only got a tiny bit weaker, while the old ones using carbon got super weak.
This is great news, especially for big trucks. Big trucks need lots of energy, and they need to keep going for a long time without stopping. If they can use these new fuel cells, they can drive for over 25,000 hours.
That’s like driving non-stop for almost 3 years!
The amazing thing is, this isn’t the only cool design the scientists at Los Alamos have come up with. They’ve also made another type of fuel cell that has special grooves in it, which they talked about in another science report.
In simple terms, the future of driving, especially big trucks, could be much cleaner and better for our planet. These tiny wires might just be the superheroes we’ve been waiting for in the world of clean energy!
The study was published in the journal Advanced Materials
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