(16a) Enhancing the Life of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

The lifetime of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is one of the most important requirements for the commercialization of DMFC except for the high cost of Pt catalyst. Methanol crossover is one of the key technical problems in DMFC, which results in the waste of fuel and mixed potential at cathode.

Methanol permeates from the anode to the cathode, and then it is partly oxidized into its intermediate product CO, which can be absorbed on the cathode Pt catalyst, occupying the active sites and increasing the electrode polarization. The CO poisoning of the cathode Pt catalyst is much worst than that of the anode PtRu catalyst, indicating that methanol crossover has significant affect on DMFC lifetime performance.

This study shows that a functional electrochemical procedure conducted on the cell can significantly restore the activity of catalysts and prolong the life of a DMFC. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) is used to oxidize CO, absorbed on catalysts, in a DMFC for mitigating performance losses. The results show that after the scanning of cathode and anode with CV, the performance of DMFC is recovered to the maximal power density of 80.5%.