New material could be used in future lithium-air batteries and fuel cells

09/17/2013 - 00:00

By David L. Chandler -

MIT researchers have found a new family of materials that provides the best-ever performance in a reaction called oxygen evolution, a key requirement for energy storage and delivery systems such as advanced fuel cells and lithium-air batteries.

The materials, called double perovskites, are a variant of a mineral that exists in abundance in the Earth’s crust. Their remarkable ability to promote oxygen evolution in a water-splitting reaction — which breaks water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen — is detailed in a paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications.

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