Posted: Aug 08, 2017 3:18 pm
The new alloy, which the team is in the process of patenting, is made of a dense powder of micron-scale grains of aluminum and one or more other metals arranged in a particular nanostructure. Adding water to the mix produces aluminium oxide or hydroxide and hydrogen – lots of it. “Ours does it to nearly 100 per cent efficiency in less than 3 minutes,” says team leader Scott Grendahl. Moreover, the new material offers at least an order of magnitude more energy than lithium batteries of the same weight. And unlike batteries, it can remain stable and ready for use indefinitely.
The only way it can be ready for use indefinitely is if the aluminium is just a catalyst, so that it does not react itself.
This reminds me of the recent article about MoS2 as a catalyst for the splitting of water molecules.