Electrode reactions, fuel cells methanol concentrations

Yet, the most interesting results for ORR on Fe-Pd/WC catalyst are those obtained in the presence of alcohol. The electrode response for Fe-Pd/WC system in oxygen saturated acid has not been affected even at high concentrations of methanol, whereas the ORR on conventional catalyst Pt/C was completely restrained since the dominant reaction was basically methanol oxidation rally. Such results suggested that Pd-Fe/WC/C could be an excellent candidate for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) cathode because of its inert activity toward methanol oxidation as seen in Fig. 23.3. The utilization of a completely inert catalyst to methanol oxidation is one of the important criteria for DMFCs to operate at higher power densities since the issue of methanol crossover is unavoidable and can cause dramatic loss in cell performance, especially with common catalysts that are active... 

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