In a paper scheduled to appear in the May 18 2005 print issue of the American Chemical Society's Energy & Fuels, professor Zhiyu Hu will propose a highly efficient method to convert chemicals into thermal energy, and to achieve spontaneous ignition and sustained combustion at room temperature.
The "nano-catalytic reaction" uses nothing but nanometre-sized particles of platinum stuck to fibres of glass wool in a small jar with methanol and air – with no source of external ignition.
This appears to be the same technique used by natural organisms such as microbes, plants and animals to obtain energy from oxidation of the same organic chemicals at [ their ] body temperatures. Biological reactions also use metals as part of their enzyme catalysts.
"Since the caveman days, we have burned things to utilize their energy, and the high temperatures and the entire process have created a lot of problems that we're then forced to deal with." - Zhiyu Hu, a physicist in the Life Sciences Division of the Department of Energy's ORNL.
This will have deep implications for the energy crisis: By using this phenomenon, we will have the ability to create much higher efficiency and less environment damaging engines, due to the lower combustion temperatures. Even an advanced fuel cell is only about 50% efficient, and it must be operated at high temperatures, which of course requires more costly components.
"What we have is the possibility of retrieving energy at a lower temperature with greater efficiency and lower environmental effects."
The method outlined in the paper "Nano-catalytic spontaneous ignition and self-supporting room-temperature combustion," co-written by ORNL's Vassil Boiadjiev and Thomas Thundat, was discovered unintentionally while conducting another experiment with platinum particles, methanol and cotton swabs. Zhiyu noticed the mixture spontaneously produced smoke.
"This wasn't research that was funded, so I worked evenings and weekends to try to understand why and how this happened".
Various experiments replicating the discovery under different conditions produced reactions that reached temperatures greater than 600 degrees Celsius, and `low` temperatures of just a few tenths of a degree above room temperature, dependant on the varying amount of fuel-air mixture, and by changing the particle size or the particle's morphology, or shape.
