---
title: "Scientists Built a Fuel Cell Out of Spinach"
description: "Using spinach as a catalyst, a team of scientists built an experimental fuel cell that outperformed conventional platinum cells."
date: "2020-10-16"
modified: "2020-10-16"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/fuel-cell-spinach"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "energy"
  - "fuel cell"
  - "spinach"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientists Built a Fuel Cell Out of Spinach

![Using spinach as a catalyst, a team of scientists built an experimental fuel cell that outperformed conventional platinum cells.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/make-fuel-cells-spinach-1.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Pikrepo\</em\>*

## Leafy Greens

A team of scientists took the same spinach you can buy at the grocery store, added a pinch of salt, and turned it into the catalyst for a clean, efficient fuel cell.

The proof-of-concept fuel cell is the latest development in a long history of scientists trying to exploit spinach's high density of [energy-generating molecules](<https://futurism.com/bill-gates-artificial-photosynthesis-can-produce-clean-fuel-for-the-cars-of-tomorrow>) for industrial use, *[Ars Technica ](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/popeye-would-approve-spinach-could-hold-key-to-renewable-fuel-cell-catalysts/>)*[reports](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/popeye-would-approve-spinach-could-hold-key-to-renewable-fuel-cell-catalysts/>).

## Plant Power

Typically, carbon-based catalysts fail to outperform platinum. But lightly-salted spinach leaves that were blended, freeze-dried, and heat-treated into layers of nanosheets were more efficient than platinum fuel cells, [according to research](<https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.0c02673>) published last month in the journal *ACS Omega*.

"This work suggests that sustainable catalysts can be made for an oxygen reduction reaction from natural resources," lead author and American University chemist Shouzhong Zou [said in a press release](<https://www.american.edu/media/news/20201005-spinach-derived-carbon-nanosheets.cfm>). "The method we tested can produce highly active, carbon-based catalysts from spinach, which is a renewable biomass. In fact, we believe it outperforms commercial platinum catalysts in both activity and stability."

## Green Tech

There's a long way to go before a spinach cell is actually useful in the real world — the new research merely proved that the concept works, *Ars* reports.

But someday, assuming the tech scales, experts suggest that spinach cells could be used as a cleaner, more sustainable alternative in all sorts of electronics, even including electric car batteries.

**READ MORE:** [Popeye would approve: Spinach could hold key to renewable fuel cell catalysts](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/popeye-would-approve-spinach-could-hold-key-to-renewable-fuel-cell-catalysts/>) \[*Ars Technica*\]

**More on spinach:** *[Researchers Have Transformed a Spinach Leaf Into Working Heart Tissue](<https://futurism.com/researchers-have-transformed-a-spinach-leaf-into-working-heart-tissue>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)