Fuel Cells go Coffee High

[Ian Thomas]

Turns out fuel cells get an 11x boost if you give'em a shot of caffeine ...

Supercharging Fuel Cells with Caffeine
Chiba University. 2024.03.14
www.chiba-u.ac.jp/e/others/topics/topics/supercharging_fuel_cells_with_caffeine.html

Fuel cells, while promising, are expensive due to high catalyst requirements to increase the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. In a breakthrough, researchers found that adding caffeine to the electrodes can improve the ORR activity of platinum electrodes 11 times.

On the basis of this breakthough discovery, I'm gonna go grab a cup right now ☕😋

[dennisw]

I think I am also about 11 times more efficient with caffeine

[vincent]

This is all well and good, but what happens when the caffeine wears off and the fuel cells crash?

[Ian Thomas]

You mean, what happens when flat batt🪫 meets flat white ☕?

* Wonder if caffeine could "juice up" a plain ordinary Pb-acid car battery?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Chemistry

** If you published a finding like that, you'd probly get sued because f*ckwits would try drinking the coffee-H₂SO₄-PbSO₄ mix.