The effect of ethanol concentration on the direct ethanol fuel cell performance and products distribution: A study using a single fuel cell/attenuated total reflectance - Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

摘要

The effect of ethanol concentration on the direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) performance and products distribution were studied in situ using a single fuel cell/ATR-FTIR setup. The experiments were performed at 80 ℃ using commercial Pt_3Sn/C as anodic catalyst and the concentrations of ethanol solution were varied from 0.1 to 2.0 mol L~(-1), An increase in power density was observed with the increase of ethanol concentration to 1.0 mol L~(-1), while the band intensities analysis in the FTIR spectra revealed an increase of acetic acid/acetaldehyde ratio with the increase of ethanol concentration. Also, from FTIR spectra results, it could be concluded that the acetic acid production follow parallel mechanisms; that is, it does not require the presence of acetaldehyde as an intermediate.