2. Anode and Cahtode Catalysts for Fuel Cells

TFCL is now developing non-platinum catalsyts for fuel cells. Taking advantage of many experiences and know-hows acquired during the last decade, we engage in the development of novel molecular catalysts^* and the design of new inorganic catalysts.

There are only a few examples of researches on anode catalysts worldwide, and so are sucessful materials that can subsitute Pt, but the problem of its limited resource and high cost pushes us to the early development of non-Pt catalysts. Also for small-scale fuel cells for portable devices, possible fuels are limited such as methanol, formic acid and ethanol, and CO-tolerant anode catalysts are desired that can be used in place of Pt or alloys.

For the cathode catalysts, historically there have been many researches and many have been proposed as possible candidates. In spite of these efforts, it is still hard to find specific examples that can substitute Pt.

TFCL works on several possibilities of molecular catalysts and others, and will serve to the fuel cell industry by proposing and developing useful novel catalysts for fuel cells.
 

^*: T. Okada and M. Kaneko eds. "Molecular Catalysts for Energy Conversion", Springer Series in Material Science 111, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg (2009).