Using a specially-coated form of clothing material Goretex, scientists at Monash University have developed an electrically-generated fuel cell which could make the next generation of hybrid cars more reliable and cheaper to build.

The team of Monash scientists have designed and tested an air-electrode, where a fine layer – just 0.4 of a micron thick, or about 100 times thinner than a human hair – of highly conductive plastic is depositied on the breathable fabric. The conductive plastic acts as both the fuel cell electrode and catalyst.

Dr Bjorn Winther-Jensen, Monash University, explained: “The same way as waste vapour is drawn out of this material to make hikers more comfortable and less prone to hypothermia, so it is able the ‘breathe’ oxygen into our fuel cell and into contact with the conductive plastic.”

Professor Doug MacFarlane, Monash University, continued: “The benefits for the motoring industry and for motorists are that the new design removes the need for platinum, which acts as the catalyst and is currently central to the manufacturing process.

“Our reliance on platinum is making the likelihood of using fuel cells in everyday passenger cars, increasingly improbable.

“The cost of the platinum component alone of current fuel cells for a small car with a 100kW electric engine is more than the total cost of an 100kW gasoline engine. Also current annual world production of platinum is only sufficient for about three million 100kW vehicles, less than one-twentieth of the current global production of vehicles.”

The new design fuel cell has been tested for periods of up to 1500 hours continuously using hydrogen as the fuel source.

According to Monash University professor Maria Forsyth, testing has shown no sign of material degradation or deterioration in performance. The tests also confirmed that oxygen conversion rates are comparable with platinum-catalysed electrodes of the same geometry and found electrodes are not poisoned by carbon monoxide the way platinum is.

Professor Forsyth, said: “The small amounts of carbon monoxide that are always present in exhausts from petrol engines are a real problem for fuel cells because the platinum catalyst is slowly poisoned, eventually destroying the cell.

“The important point to stress is that the team has come up with an alternative fuel design that is more economical, more easily sourced, outlasts platinum cells and is just as effective.”