By Peter Weiss
Honed by billions of years of evolution, many microbial enzymes are champions at stripping electrons from hydrogen molecules and shunting the charged particles into biochemical reactions. Now, a team of scientists in England and Germany has tapped that molecular machinery to create a new type of fuel cell.
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Like most fuel cells, this one steals electrons from hydrogen molecules and bestows them on oxygen atoms and hydrogen ions to yield water and an electric current (SN: 6/11/05, p. 374: Micropower Heats Up: Propane fuel cell packs a lot of punch). Yet it makes that transfer in an atypical manner that could lead to a new class of fuel cells, says Fraser A. Armstrong of the University of Oxford in England, a coleader of the team that created a prototype cell.