Tungsten based electrocatalyst for fuel cell applications

A barrier to the widespread use of fuel cells is their reliance on expensive and scarce platinum and other precious metal catalysts. We present a catalyst for hydrogen oxidation, prepared electrochemically from high-purity aqueous tungstate salt precursors. The 24-electron reduction of ammonium metatungstate ((NH4)6[H2W12O40]) yields a material with electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of hydrogen in acid electrolyte which approaches 25% that of platinum. Moreover, the tungstate catalyst is unusually tolerant to CO and H2S contaminants in the fuel stream.