Performance of direct alcohol fuel cells fed with mixed methanol/ethanol solutions
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Publication Details
Author list: Wongyao N., Therdthianwong A., Therdthianwong S.
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2011
Journal: Energy Conversion and Management (0196-8904)
Volume number: 52
Issue number: 7
Start page: 2676
End page: 2681
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 0196-8904
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
In combining the advantages of both methanol and ethanol, direct alcohol fuel cells fed with mixed alcohol solutions (1 M methanol and 1 M ethanol in varying volume ratios) were tested for performance. Employing a PtRu-PtSn/C catalyst as anode, cell performance was found to diminish rapidly even at 2.5% by volume ethanol mixture. Further increase of ethanol exceeded 10%, the cell performance gradually decreased and finally approached that of direct ethanol fuel cells. The causes of the decrease in the cell performance were the slow electro-oxidation of ethanol and the misplaced adsorption of ethanol on PtRu/C. By comparing the PtRu-PtSn/C cell with the PtRu/C cell operated with mixed alcohol solutions, the cell using PtRu/C as an anode catalyst provided higher power density since more PtRu/C surface was available for methanol oxidation reaction and less ohmic resistance of PtRu/C than that of PtRu-PtSn/C. In order to reach optimization of DAFC performance fed with mixed alcohol, the electrocatalyst used for the anode must selectively adsorb an alcohol, especially ethanol. ฉ 2011 Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords
Direct alcohol fuel cell (DAFC), Electrocatalyst, Methanol/ethanol, Mixed alcohol fuel, Mixed fuel stripping voltammetry
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