American firm Superior MicroPowders has secured a chunk of a $5 million Department of Energy (DOE) contract to help develop high performance platinum cathodes.

The business, which is based in Albuquerque, has been granted $600,000 from the government fund.

Senator Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, announced the deal, revealing that Superior MicroPowders will work in conjunction with the Albuquerque office of the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

'The small business's revolutionary technologies are supporting the NNSA Albuquerque operation with some very important back up,' Senator Domenici commented.

Superior MicroPowders was also recently awarded more than $700,000 by the National Institute of Standards Technology to continue research on fuel cell technologies.