One of the main obstacles in front of robots being widely used in our everyday lives is to provide mobility for longer durations with less weight and fewer recharge requirements. The solution seems to be the developing fuel cell technology, however the current state does not yet allow us to use these in everyday practical aplications. The main hinderance factor so far is the cost of production, such as using platinum, a very expensive material have to be utilized in order to produce these cells.

A recent finding by chemists at University of Calgary, may be the solution for using cheaper materials in the future. The chemists dicovered a new material that would enable producing these cells at higher temperatures, which would mean the possibility of using cheaper materials instead of platinum.

A fuel cell converts hydrogen and oxygen into water and electrical energy. Current fuel cells can produce energy from hydrogen below 90 °C. With new material, this could be done up to 150 °C, which would allow cheaper materials and faster reactions as well, which means increased efficiency.

Reference: www.physorg.com/news175092210.html

  fuel cell