http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090311153412.htm
SUMMARY
Little platinum microscopic wires soon could fuel our vehicles someday. These small wires are called nanowires and are about 1/50,000 the size of normal human hair. Many different types of shorter nanowires have previously been used for technologies such as nanocomputers and nanoscale sensors. The new nanowires are the longest platinum ones ever made, which could speed the process of development of fuel cells. The process they are made by is called electrospinnning, which is a technique used to produce long, ultra-thin solid fibers. One of the places developing nanowires is University of Rochester. Rochester has found that the wires will increase longevity and efficiency of fuel cells, and could soon power and fuel many vehicles. This will help reduce the reliance on petroleum fuels. Platinum is the primary element used because of its durability inside of a fuel cell.
IMPACT
This will impact me in multiple ways; good and bad. It will affect me in a good way because this could help reduce the cost of fuel for a car, putting more money into my pocket. Also the amount of emissions would greatly reduce, making the air cleaner and healthier. Your mileage on a car might skyrocket using nanowires because it will be using it instead of gasoline. This could slow down or even help reduce global warming. Either way it will have more of a positive affect because there will not be so much carbon dioxide being put out into the atmosphere, allowing a human to breathe cleaner air. The downside or bad impact is the cost of platinum is very high. This could make cars much more expensive, which not everyone can afford a $50,000 car. With cars probably being so expensive it might take long to compensate for the lessened amount of gas purchased.
