Performance of direct alcohol fuel cells fed with mixed methanol/ethanol solutions

In combining the advantages of both methanol and ethanol, direct alcohol fuel cells fed with mixed alcohol solutions (1 M methanol and 1 M ethanol in varying volume ratios) were tested for performance. Employing a PtRu–PtSn/C catalyst as anode, cell performance was found to diminish rapidly even at 2.5% by volume ethanol mixture. Further increase of ethanol exceeded 10%, the cell performance gradually decreased and finally approached that of direct ethanol fuel cells. The causes of the decrease in the cell performance were the slow electro-oxidation of ethanol and the misplaced adsorption of ethanol on PtRu/C. By comparing the PtRu–PtSn/C cell with the PtRu/C cell operated with mixed alcohol solutions, the cell using PtRu/C as an anode catalyst provided higher power density since more PtRu/C surface was available for methanol oxidation reaction and less ohmic resistance of PtRu/C than that of PtRu–PtSn/C. In order to reach optimization of DAFC performance fed with mixed alcohol, the electrocatalyst used for the anode must selectively adsorb an alcohol, especially ethanol.

Research highlights
► We examined the performance of direct alcohol fuel cells fed with mixed alcohol.
► PtRu-PtSn/C and PtRu/C as catalysts for mixed alcohol electrooxidation reaction.
► Misplace adsorption of ethanol on PtRu/C caused the cell performance drop.
► PtRu/C showed higher performance than PtRu-PtSn/C for mixed alcohol fuel.