Technique improves the efficacy of fuel cells

(Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) Solid oxide fuel cells, which rely on low- cost ceramic materials, are among the most efficient and promising type of fuel cell. Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have found a way to harness the quantum behavior of these fuel cells to make them even more efficient and robust. In doing so, they've observed a new type of phase transition in an oxide material.