Influence of a Pore-Former in the Performance of a Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell

Electrochemical oxidation of formic acid for portable electronic devices has attracted much attention in the last few years, as a high efficiency power source. It has the potential to replace the state-of-the-art batteries in devices, such as: cell phones, PDAs, and laptop computers. In the present investigation, the influence of a pore-former in the electrocatalyst of the anode of a Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell (DFAFC) performance is studied. Direct paint technique is used to prepare the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) using Pt-Ru (50:50% by wt) as the anode catalyst, and Pt Black as the cathode catalyst, a pore-former and nafion ionomer. The pore-former used is Li2CO3 in the catalyst ink during the preparation of MEA. Higher DFAFC performance is obtained because the network of pores in the anode side allowed easy removal of reaction species, thereby increasing the catalyst site available for formic acid oxidation. The maximum power density of DFAFC increased from 64.039 mW/cm2 to 103.64 mW/cm2 when pore-former was added to the anode catalyst ink.