How Fuel Cells Work | Spring Into STEM

Fuel cells represent a potentially efficient and clean way of generating electricity for a wide range of uses from a direct electrochemical reaction. The basic idea behind the fuel cell has been around since the 19th century. Fuel cells powered the Apollo space programme in the 60s and there are even fuel-cell cars and buses on our roads now. However, their commercial uptake has been somewhat hindered by issues of cost and engineering and recently has been competing with the drastically reduced prices of Li-ion batteries. This lecture will give an overview of how fuel cells work and the myriad of different material properties that need to come together for their effective operation. These span many length scales, from the nano to the macro-scale, as well as encompassing problems from the disciplines of chemistry, physics, electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering and even biology (for microbial fuel cells).