Performance of direct dimethyl ether fuel cells at low temperature

The performance of direct dimethyl ether fuel cells (DDMEFC) is presented in this study at the relatively low temperature of 80 °C. At temperatures lower than 100 °C, since water exists as liquid but DME as a gas, it is difficult for them to use simultaneously as fuel for DDMEFCs even with the low solubility of DME in water at atmospheric pressure. It has been found that the use of an interdigitated flow field enhances the performance of DDMEFC by facilitating the phase mixing of DME and water. Palladium (Pd) catalyst is not nearly electrochemically active to the anode reaction of DDMEFC and platinum-ruthenium (Pt-Ru) catalyst has been found to be effective anode catalysts for DDMEFC at low temperature.