Alkaline direct oxidation glucose fuel cell system using silver/nickel foams as electrodes

Glucose is an ideal renewable fuel for fuel cells, because it is cheap, abundant in nature, and easy to produce. Conventional glucose fuel cells that use enzymes and microorganisms as the catalysts are limited by their extremely low power output and rather short durability. In the present work, a direct oxidation glucose fuel cell that uses an anion-exchange membrane and Ag/Ni foam electrodes is developed. The results show that this type of direct glucose fuel cell with a relatively cheap membrane and catalysts can produce a maximum power density of 2.03 mW/cm2 at 80 °C. The current density and power density of the fuel cell were remarkably increased using the preheating anolyte. The high performance of the fuel cell is mainly attributed to the increased kinetics of both the glucose oxidation reaction and oxygen reduction reaction, rendered by a better electrocatalytic activity of Ag/Ni foam and higher operating temperature, and the transformation of glucose to an enediol form.

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