Recent development of the alkaline anion exchange membrane (AEM) has opened up new possibilities for fuel cells; this AEM creates an alkaline environment in the fuel cell.  Two key advantages of the alkaline environment are faster reaction kinetics and a less corrosive environment.  Faster kinetics permits biologically-related fuels such as ethanol and formate to be used efficiently in a fuel cell.  The less corrosive environment permits the use of non-noble metals which would rapidly corrode in acid.  We have developed an alkaline fuel cell which operates using fuels such as ethanol, formate, propanol, and ethylene glycol.  We have two primary objectives to discuss.  First, we are studying palladium-based catalysts which are created by alloying of non-noble metals with the palladium.  Second, we are determining which catalysts are optimal for the various fuels we are testing.  We will report on progress of these two objectives.

Palladium-based catalysts and small organic molecule fuels for alkaline direct liquid fuel cells

245th National Meeting (2013)

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