Novel Anodic Catalyst Support for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell: Characterizations and Single-Cell Performances

Abstract

Abstract This study introduces a novel titanium dioxide carbon nanofiber (TiO2-CNF) support for anodic catalyst in direct methanol fuel cell. The catalytic synthesis process involves several methods, namely the sol-gel, electrospinning, and deposition methods. The synthesized electrocatalyst is compared with other three electrocatalysts with different types of support. All of these electrocatalysts differ based on a number of physical and electrochemical characteristics. Experimental results show that the TiO2-CNF support gave the highest current density at 345.64 mA mgcatalyst −1, which is equivalent to 5.54-fold that of carbon support while the power density is almost double that of the commercial electrocatalyst.

Keywords

• Direct methanol fuel cell
• Catalyst support
• Titanium dioxide
• Carbon nanofiber