Cathode Reactions and Catalysts

The cathode reaction in the DMFC is the same as that for the hydrogen fuel cell with acid electrolyte. 

As has been mentioned earlier, some experiments are being done with non-platinum cathode catalysts. The idea of using these cathode catalysts is that they will not oxidise the methanol crossing to the cathode, and hence solve the mixed-potential problem. Research on this is still at a fairly early stage, and such catalysts do not yet have sufficient oxygen reduction performance to be used. 

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