Highly Durable Passive Direct Methanol Fuel Cell with Three-Dimensional Ordered Porous NiCo2O4 as Cathode Catalyst

The performance of durability in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is of great significance. In this study, NiCo2O4 with three-dimensional ordered hierarchical pore was applied as oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst to enhance the long-term stability in passive DMFC. The peak power densities of NiCo2O4-based DMFC were 14.78 and 26 mW cm(-2) at 15 and 40 degrees C, respectively. In the durability test, NiCo2O4-based DMFC could operate continually for 1406 hours, which is approximately 6 times higher than the highest values reported in literature. And the outstanding durability could be mainly ascribed to the interconnected and ordered macropores channel in NiCo2O4, which could act as a structural buffer to mitigate the structural changes in porous nano-catalysts, and also significantly facilitate the mass transport and the rapid elimination of cathodic product to solve the problem of water flooding at the cathode.