Novel approach to membraneless direct methanol fuel cells using advanced 3D anodes

作者：Lam Alfred; Wilkinson David P^*; Zhang Jiujun

来源：Electrochimica Acta, 2008, 53(23): 6890-6898.

DOI：10.1016/j.electacta.2007.12.081

• membraneless fuel cell
• 3D anode
• direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC)
• air-breathing fuel cell
• passive fuel cell

A conventional membrane elect rode assembly (MEA) fora direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) consists of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) compressed between an anode and cathode electrode. Limitations with this conventional design include: cost. fuel crossover, membrane degradation Or contamination, ohmic losses and reduced active triple phase boundary (TPB) sites for catalyst located away from the electrode/membrane interface. In this work, ex situ and in situ characterization of a novel electrode assembly based on a membraneless architecture and advanced 3D anodes was investigated. The approach was shown to be fuel independent and scaleable to a conventional bi-polar fuel cell arrangement. The membraneless configuration exhibits comparable performance to a conventional ambient (25 degrees C, 1 atm) air-breathing DMFC. However, it has the additional advantages of a simplified design, the elimination of the membrane (a significant component expense) and enhanced fuel and catalyst utilization through the extension of(he active catalyst zone.

• 出版日期2008-10-1