Enhancement of anode performance for alkaline-acid direct glycerol fuel

An alkaline-acid direct glycerol fuel cell (AA-DGFC) was proposed for a portable power generating device that requires high power density. A good design of cell components and optimum cell operating conditions are the key factors to yield high performance of fuel cells. In this work, AA-DGFC with Pt/C anode catalyst showed outstanding performance with open-circuit voltage as high as 1.72V and the peak power density of 330 mWcm(-2) which is about 2.7 times higher than the performance of a typical anion exchange membrane direct glycerol fuel cell (AEDGFC). The operating conditions providing the best performance were at glycerol to NaOH mole ratio of 1:5, 1.0M glycerol concentration, an anolyte volumetric flow rate of 1mLmin(-1) and cell temperature of 80 degrees C. For the design of the cell component, the optimum Nafion ionomer content in the anode microporous layer was 20 wt%. Among the Au-based catalysts at the anode studied Au/C, Au-Ni/C and Au-Ag/C, the Au-Ni/C outperformed the others with the power density of 142 mWcm(-2). (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.