Intermediate-temperature alkaline methanol fuel cell

An intermediate-temperature alkaline methanol fuel cell (ITAMFC) based on significantly accelerated electrode reactions and minimized CO-poisoning of catalysts in alkaline media and in an intermediate-temperature range of 80 to 200 °C has been successfully developed. In this temperature range, electrochemical oxidations of both methanol and CO at Pt-group elemental-based catalysts are rather facile and silver shows high activity for oxygen reduction reaction which is comparable to that of Pt. The ITAMFC using carbon-supported platinum as both anode and cathode catalysts demonstrates high performance which is characterized by a peak power density of around 100 mW cm^-2 at 120 °C. Moreover, it has been observed that it is possible to replace Pt catalysts using less-expensive Pd catalyst at the anode side and Ag catalyst at the cathode side without sacrificing performance. Therefore, the ITAMFC is a novel promising fuel cell technology with improved performance and/or decreased cost.