A high-performance alkaline exchange membrane direct formate fuel cell

This paper reports on a single alkaline exchange membrane direct formate fuel cell (AEM DFFC) consisting of a carbon-supported palladium catalyst at the anode, a quaternized polysulfone membrane, and a non-precious Fe-Co catalyst at the cathode. It is demonstrated that the AEM DFFC yields a peak power density of 130 mW cm−2 with 5 M potassium formate (HCOOK) at 80 °C. It is further shown that with the addition of KOH to the anolyte, the peak power density rises to as high as 250 mW cm−2 at the same operating temperature. In addition, the AEM DFFC was also tested at 100 mA cm−2 for more than 130 h and no significant degradation in performance is found. The results reported in this work suggest that formate salt (HCOOM, M+ = Na+ or K+) is a potential fuel for alkaline-type direct liquid fuel cells.