Roughed-up carbon nanotubes could help build better batteries and fuel cells
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This drawing shows a double-walled carbon nanotube. Each tube is made of a rolled-up sheet of carbon that’s one-atom thick (Image: Guosong Hong/Stanford University)
This microscopy image shows the damaged outer walls of double- and triple-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) after being treated in a chemical solution. This technique could help make carbon nanotubes an attractive, low-cost alternative to platinum catalysts in fuel cells (Image: Hongjie Dai Lab/Stanford University)
The damaged outer wall of a carbon nanotube with nanosized graphene pieces (white patches), which facilitate the formation of catalytic sites made of iron (yellow) and nitrogen (red) atoms. The catalyst reduces oxygen to water (Image: Guosong Hong/Stanford University)
Article Summary
Stanford researchers have found that concentric carbon nanotubes, with the outer layer riddled by defects and impurities, could be a cheap alternative for some of the platinum catalysts that convert hydrogen and oxygen into water in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.
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