Ambient Temperature Operation of a Platinum Free Direct Formate Fuel Cell

Abstract

Several reports have been made recently of the direct formate fuel cell (DFFC) operating at hightemperature and using Pt cathode catalyst. In the present work, we demonstrate a Ptfree DFFC employing ACTA HypermecTM 4020 Fe–Co secondgeneration cathode catalyst operating at lowtemperature. We report a maximum power density (PD) of 45 mW cm−2 at ambient temperature (20 آ°C), when the fuel stream was 1 M HCOOK and 2 M KOH with oxygen used at the cathode. When air was used at the cathode, the maximum PD was 35 mW cm−2. When hydroxide was removed from the fuel stream and oxygen used at the cathode, the maximum PD at 20 آ°C was 18 mW cm−2. This lowtemperature, KOHfree operation is important to development of a practical DFFC.