High-Performance Polymer Fiber Membrane Based Direct Methanol Fuel Cell System with Non-Platinum Catalysts

The broad application of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) is impeded by the high cost of catalysts, the unsatisfied ionic conductivity of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), and the methanol crossover. To address the above issues, a unique strategy based on the permeable polymer fiber membrane (PFM) and nonplatinum catalysts was presented to achieve high-performance DMFCs. In this system, the high-dispersed Pd/Co-CeO2/C and methanol-tolerance NiCo2O4 were prepared and used as anode and cathode catalysts. Besides, the PEM was substituted by an inexpensive and electrolyte permeable PFM. As fabricated PFM-based DMFC shows encouraging performance (58.6 mW.cm(-2)), which is 3.1 times higher than that of classical PtRu catalysts and PEM-based cell (19.1 mW.cm(-2)) at room temperature, and the maximum power density of PFM-based cell even could reach up to 126.2 mW.cm(-2) (26.1 mW cm(-2) with air-feed) at 60 degrees C. Furthermore, the PFM-based cell exhibits excellent stability performance in the 200 h long-time discharging test. The high electrocatalytic activity and selectivity of the catalysts, observably decreased membrane resistance of PFM, and unique structure of PFM-based membrane electrode assembly are combined to boost the performance. It provides a new strategy to achieve high-performance DMFCs and substitute for the expensive Pt catalysts and polymer-electrocatalyzed membrane.