Development of Electro-Catalysts for the Alcohol Oxidation in Anion Exchange Membrane Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells

摘要

Fuel cells operating with a liquid fuel are a very promising option to guarantee long uptimes for future portable appliances for both civil and military users. Direct conversion of the fuel at temperatures not too much above ambient temperature provides additional benefits, such as potentially higher efficiencies due to the avoidance of losses by an additional chemical conversion step, and short start-up times and low IR signatures due to low temperatures of all parts of the system. Systems with fuel cells basing on proton exchange membranes and using methanol as fuel have achieved a high maturity and are close to market introduction. However, this approach has a number of disadvantages.