Effect of Temperature, Oxidant and Catalyst Loading on the Performance of Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell

Jeong Soo Kim; Jae Keun Yu; Hyo Song Lee; Jin Yong Kim; Young Chun Kim; Jong Hee Han; In Hwan Oh; Young Woo Rhee

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.22, No.5, 661-665, September, 2005

Jeong Soo Kim , Jae Keun Yu, Hyo Song Lee , Jin Yong Kim, Young Chun Kim¹, Jong Hee Han¹, In Hwan Oh¹, and Young Woo Rhee^†

Department of Chemical Engineering, Chungnam National University, 220, Gung-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-764, Korea
¹Fuel Cell Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, 39-1, Hawolgok-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-791, Korea

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We investigated the effect of temperature, oxidant and catalyst loading on the performance of direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC). When oxidant was changed from air to oxygen, the power density was increased to 17.3mW/cm2 at 25 ℃. The power density of DFAFC operated with oxygen showed a maximum value of 40.04 mW/cm2 with the temperature rise from room temperature to 70 ℃. The highest power density of DFAFC using air was observed for Pt-Ru black catalyst with loading of 8 mgPt/cm2 at room temperature. At 70 ℃; however, the performance of catalyst with the loading of 4mgPt/cm2 was higher than that of 8 mgPt/cm2. The DFAFC, operated with oxygen and catalyst of 4 mgPt/cm2 loading, showed the best performance at all temperature range. The enhancement of cell performance with an increase of catalyst loading is believed to come from an increase of catalyst active sites. However, operated at higher temperature or with oxygen, the cell with higher catalyst loading showed lower performance than expected. It is speculated that the thick catalyst layer inhibits the proton transport.

Keywords:Fuel Cell;Formic Acid (HCOOH);Anode Catalyst;DFAFC;Temperature

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