High selectivity of ethanol electrooxidation to carbon dioxide on platinum nanoparticles in low temperature polymer electrolyte membrane direct ethanol fuel cell

• Pt/C nanoalloys are used as anodes in direct ethanol fuel cell.
• Ethanol oxidation products are quantified for wide range of conditions.
• Oxygen permeation is responsible for contradiction between ex situ and FC results.
• The conditions for oxidation of ethanol mainly to CO2 are presented.

Products of ethanol oxidation on Pt/C nanoparticles in low temperature, polymer electrolyte membrane direct ethanol fuel cell are determined qualitatively and quantitatively in broad range of cell voltages and temperatures. Despite the fact that platinum is one of the most popular anode systems studied, comparable literature data are severely limited due to the broad unawareness of the oxygen permeation process occurring in fuel cells. Correction for oxygen crossover from cathode compartment allowed us also to correlate our results to general mechanism of ethanol electrooxidation, determined based on ex situ spectroscopic analysis, as available in literature. We also determined that for certain conditions on platinum anode, in low temperature polymer–electrolyte membrane direct ethanol fuel cell, ethanol is oxidized to carbon dioxide with very high (ca. 82%) selectivity. Conditions required for obtaining the reported selectivity are presented and discussed.

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