We all heard of fuel cell technology, especially since Toyota launched the Mirai EV and managed to stand tall in front of critics coming from the automotive world; Elon Musk included.
Despite the fact that the Toyota Mirai can run on cow manure when it comes to fuel cell technology, things are geekier than you might think. Also, they involve a hefty amount of chemistry, way more than your favorite TV series Breaking Bad would ever encompass.
For hydrogen fuel-cell technology to happen, platinum is needed. This rare and expensive element acts like as a catalyst for the reaction during which electrons are removed from the hydrogen molecule to create an electrical charge and when hydrogen ions and electrons mix with oxygen to produce water.
However, that was impossible to observe until now. Toyota says that together with Japan Fine Ceramics Center (JFCC), it developed a new observation technique that allows researchers to monitor the behavior of nanometer-sized particles of platinum during chemical reactions in fuel cells.
Before getting too excited, remember nothing is 100 percent sure at the moment. But, and there's a 'but' here, if Toyota manages to take the real-time observation of fuel cell catalyst degradation to a new level, interesting things could happen.
Simply put, future generations of fuel cell packs will be more efficient and durable, which sounds promising but again, there's still a lot of research to be done before the world can get an innovation out of that.
In other news, the Toyota Mirai will reach US dealerships in October, but Californian dealers will be the first to sell it to 'select, eligible customers'.
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