Synthesis of multi-metallic catalysts for fuel cell applications

Abstract

The direct methanol fuel cell or DMFC is emerging as a promising alternative energy source for many applications. Developed and developing countries, through research, are fast seeking a cheap and stable supply of energy for an ever-increasing number of energy-consuming portable devices. The research focus is to have DMFCs meeet this need at an affordable cost is problematic. There are means and ways of making this a reality as the DMFC is found to be complementary to secondary batteries when used as a trickle charger, full charger, or in some other hybrid fuel cell combination. The core functioning component is a catalyst containing MEA, where when pure platinum is used, carbon monoxide is the thermodynamic sink and poisons by preventing further reactions at catalytic sites decreasing the life span of the catalyst if the CO is not removed. Research has shown that the bi-functional mechanism of a platinum-ruthenium catalyst is best because methanol dehydrogenates best on platinumand water dehydrogenation is best facilitated on ruthenium. It is also evident that the addition of other metals to that of PtRu/C can make the catalyst more effective and effective and increase the life span even further. In addition to this, my research has attempted to reduce catalyst cost for DMFCs by developing a low-cost manufacturing technique for catalysts, identify potential non-noblel, less expensive metallic systems to form binary, ternary and quarternary catalysts.