Aerobic and anaerobic operation of an active membraneless direct methanol fuel cell

作者：Lam Alfred; Dara Mohammad S; Wilkinson David P^*; Fatih Khalid

来源：Electrochemistry Communications, 2012, 17: 22-25.

DOI：10.1016/j.elecom.2011.12.020

• Membraneless
• Direct methanol fuel cell
• Direct methanol redox fuel cell
• Aerobic
• Anaerobic

In this paper the operational and architectural flexibilities of a membraneless direct liquid fuel cell were demonstrated under aerobic and anaerobic configurations at 60 degrees C and 1 atm. The aerobic membraneless direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was fed an anolyte solution of 1 M CH3OH/0.5 M H2SO4 and an air oxidant. The anaerobic membraneless direct methanol redox fuel cell (DMRFC) was fed an anolyte solution of 1 M CH3OH/0.1 M HClO4 and a catholyte solution of 2 M Fe(ClO4)(3) and 0.22 M Fe(ClO4)(2) oxidant. For both cases the membraneless architecture performed significantly better than for the conventional PEM architecture with Nafion (R) 117. The maximum power density for the membraneless and Nafion (R) 117 based DMFC was 52 mW.cm(-2) and 41 mW.cm(-2) respectively. The maximum power density for the membraneless and Nafion (R) 117 based DMRFC was 46 mW.cm(-2) and 34 mW.cm(-2) respectively. In addition, anaerobic operation using a Fe2+/Fe3+ catholyte gave similar performance to that for air as an oxidant. Both membraneless and anaerobic operation can result in significant cost reduction with improved operational flexibility.

• 出版日期2012-4