A non-precious metal ascorbate fuel cell

The requirement of expensive precious metal catalysts as electrode materials in fuel cells remains a major obstacle to commercialization. In this work, two ascorbate fuel cells are fabricated without precious metal catalysts and are operated at 60 degrees C with an alkaline fuel stream consisting of ascorbate and NaOH. A split pH ascorbate-peroxide fuel cell utilizing a Cu/C anode and carbon black cathode was fabricated with a Na+ conducting cation exchange membrane and operated with H2O2 in H2SO4 as the oxidant. It achieved a maximum power density of 51 mW cm(-2) and an open circuit voltage of 1.05 V. This power density is comparable to previous ascorbate and ascorbic acid fuel cells that utilized precious metal catalysts (ie, Pd, Pt). Notably, the performance was achieved with simple Cu and C electrodes. For comparison, an alkaline ascorbate fuel cell was prepared that employed a Cu/C anode and ACTA cathode (FeCo/C) separated by an anion exchange membrane and used oxygen gas as the oxidant. It produced a maximum power density of 6 mW cm(-2) and an open circuit voltage of 0.48 V. These ascorbate fuel cells demonstrate the opportunity to replace precious metal catalysts in order to dramatically lower the cost of fuel cell electrodes with comparable performance to counterpart ascorbate fuel cells previously employing precious metal catalysts.

Automated summary

This study successfully fabricated two ascorbate fuel cells without the need for precious metal catalysts, achieving impressive power density and open circuit voltage. These fuel cells demonstrate comparable performance to previous ones utilizing precious metal catalysts, providing the opportunity to lower the cost of fuel cell electrodes.