Scientists from the Stanford University have made significant progress in the development of fuel cells. The scientific team headed by former Stanford student Haotian Wang discovered that by compressing platinum catalysts by just a fraction of a nanometer, catalyst activity can be increased almost twofold, which is a very significant fact in the development of clean energy sources. The catalysts are used to accelerate chemical reactions, while using less energy. The performance of a metal catalyst depends on its electron structure, that is the way the electrons are distributed in its orbit. "Our tuning technique could make fuel cells more energy efficient and increase their power output," said co-author Yi Cui, a professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford.