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performance. Fuel cells in the Gemini space program, for example, used 35 mg of platinum per cm2 of active cell area. Nowadays, the industry standard is roughly 0.6 mg Pt per cm2 (including anode and cathode), according to Hubert Gasteiger, a technical manager at GM's fuel-cell research center in Honeoye Falls, N.Y.
Gasteiger notes that Pt loadings in the range of just 0.35 mg per cm2 have been demonstrated in research-scale studies by using state-of-the-art fuel-cell materials and capitalizing on engineering advances. And even lower Pt loadings--just 0.2 mg per cm2--have been shown to be feasible using Pt-Co, Pt-Cr, and other Pt alloys. But in the case of the Pt alloys, Gasteiger emphasizes that the tests were done on a very small scale and that long-term durability has not been established. "The challenge is out there for the materials research community to develop proven stable Pt-alloy catalysts and even Pt-free catalysts," he says.
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