Development of perovskite catalysts as anode material for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC).

摘要

The rising concern over the environmental damage caused by using fossil fuels for the production of electricity and propulsion of vehicles has influenced the development of fuel cells. There are various types of fuel cells such as Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Alkaline Fuel Cell, Direct Methanol Fuel Cell, Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) is among the most extensively studied because of the advantage that methanol can be directly fed to the cell without the intermediate step of reforming the alcohol into hydrogen. The major advantages of a DMFC are that it is light in weight because of the absence of a reformer and is portable. However, there are two main obstacles in the utilization of the DMFC: (1) Low current density due to the slow oxidation reaction rates of methanol in the anode at room temperature. (2) Noble metals such as Pt and Pt-Ru bimetallic systems that are used as anode catalysts are very expensive thereby increasing the cost of the cell. They are also known to be poisoned by methanol oxidation intermediates such as CO, which are formed during the oxidation reaction.; In this research, the effect of temperature and methanol concentration on the current-voltage characteristics of a DMFC is investigated to provide a better understanding on the anode reaction kinetics. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)