H Power Corporation

Plug Power Inc.

Zhigang Qi

Arthur Kaufman

Zhiqiang Xu

Chunzhi He

Mark Hollett

Fuel cell catalyst layers, and related systems and methods are disclosed.

Fuel cell catalyst layer

Acidic groups such as those in the sulfonic acid family have been successfully linked onto the surface of carbon used as catalyst support. Electrodes made using such sulfonated catalysts as used in electrochemical cells improve the performance of the cells, more so than cells fabricated from electrodes using an unsulfonated electrode.

Fuel cell catalyst electrodes

A fuel cell using a neat alcohol such as neat 2-propanol, as its fuel is described. The fuel that is purposely not mixed with any amount of water is oxidized directly at the fuel cell anode. The fuel cell can support a higher current density than a fuel cell using 1 M 2-propanol aqueous solution. The energy density of a fuel cell using a neat fuel is much higher than that of one using dilute fuel aqueous solutions.

Alcohol fueled direct oxidation fuel cells

In one aspect, the invention features a method including sorbing carbon monoxide to a catalyst layer of a fuel cell, and oxidizing the carbon monoxide. The method can be used to pre-condition or activate the catalyst layer.

Fuel cells

A fuel cell using a secondary alcohol such as 2-propanol as fuel is disclosed. The fuel is oxidized directly at the anode without any reforming. Such a direct secondary alcohol fuel cell (D2AFC) possesses a much higher performance than a direct methanol fuel cell, especially at current densities less than 200 mA/cm. In addition, fuel loss due to crossover in a direct 2-propanol fuel cell (D2PFC) is less than one-sixth of that in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC).

Direct secondary alcohol fuel cells

Electrodes for an electrochemical cell such as a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell are treated with steam or a hot solution before they are bonded to a membrane to form a membrane-electrode assembly. Such a treatment effectively increases the performance of the electrodes when they are subsequently tested within the PEM fuel cell. Improved performance is also observed using this technique with a catalyst-coated membrane and a membrane-electrode assembly.

Enhancement of electrochemical cell performance

A sensing device is featured that electrochemically measures methanol concentration. The sensing device has a flexible composite of layered materials wrapped about a flexible tube having aperture contact with a methanol flow stream. The layered materials sequentially wrapped on the tube are: a polytetrafluoroethylene insulation sheet; an electrically conducting mesh representing the anode current collector; a carbon-based material representing an anode diffusion medium; a catalyst-coated membrane with both sides coated by catalysts such as Pt/Ru and Pt; a carbon-based material serving as the cathode diffusion medium; and an electrically conducting mesh representing the cathode current collector.

Sensor for electro-active materials

A membrane-electrode assembly for electrochemical cells such as proton exchange membrane fuel cells and direct methanol fuel cells operating at ambient conditions are activated first by exposing them at a temperature higher than ambient temperature and with the gaseous reactants back-pressurized. The performance of the membrane-electrode assemblies, especially those whose electrodes are of low catalyst loadings made using supported catalysts, improves dramatically after the activation.

Activation of electrochemical cells with catalyst electrodes

A method is described for improving the performance of fuel cells such as H /air PEM fuel cells and direct methanol fuel cells. It has been discovered that H evolution can significantly improve the performance of air cathodes and direct methanol fuel cell anodes. The improvement of air cathodes applies to both H /air PEM fuel cells and direct methanol fuel cells.

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North Arlington, NJ, United States of America

Zhigang Qi