[P-man]

I've been inquiring more on different catalysts and fell accross a nickel-aluminum alloy, mostly nickel. Does anyone know anything about these types of catalysts?

[buckminsterfullerene]

i know that someone, which is an expert on the field, said that nickel was about 300 times more unefficient as a catalyst than platinum, which means that even though platinum is more expensive it is still better.

however, i do rememmber reading about a catalyst used to break apart water composed of a organic material and costing only a fraction of the price of platinum, and as effective if not better, the name i do not know but if you could find it i would really appreciate to know what it is also.. if only i had saved the article and the site where i found this information.

nickel-aluminum will work as a catalyst, but the hydrogen produced better come from distilled water, because simply getting water would mean that you could have some impurities which could in turn damage or decrease the efficiency in the fuel cell.  

[P-man]

Well if you're ready to pay $4,500 KWh, then fine, go with platinum. But I say, go with a good nickel aluminum catalyst that works good and pay a fraction less.

But tell me more about that organic catalyst...

[buckminsterfullerene]

only read about it once and its supposed to costs well about $600 per pound compared to platinum which is about i think $5700 per pound or simething about $5000, but i forgot what it was composed of.

have you read my pervious posts mentioning a fuel cell that produces about 3 KWh, weight only 5 pounds, and the bike that ports that fuel cell only costs about $2700, that is the advantage of going nano on this kind of technology, it works exactly the same as fuel cells, in that to increase the current output or to increase the voltage output you would simply have to connect the cells in parallel or series connections, and in the nano sense you are making the cells extremelly small and using considerably less material to get a higher power output.  and its incredebly efficient, the technology appeared in TIME magazine as one of the top 100 inventiones of the year, a motorbike which has the fuel cell, reaches speeds of 50 mph, and it has a range of 100 miles on only 5 oz of H₂.  no it does not have to cost too much, but then again since the nickel-catalyst is about 300 times inefficient would you not have to get 300 times more nickel to get the same power output in a cell that has the same components and thus use 300 times the hydrogen, and have a cell 300 times larger?

[P-man]

Not really. Nickel can be played arounf with, alloyed with other metals, and metamorphisized until it can be efficient... Another of my wild ideas. But hey: "Imagination is more important than knowledge."-Albert Einstein

[buckminsterfullerene]

well that is true

[P-man]

So what do you think of it? Do you think nickel could be tinkered around with to the point of changing its chemical prperties?

[buckminsterfullerene]

it may be possible, there has been mounting interest in nickel as a material to replace platinum in cells.  it was in the site that i posted a long time ago in chemistryguy.com.. unfortunately i did not save it, but perhaps you rememmber---