Our previous studies demonstrated great potential of methyl methacrylate and vinylbenzyl chloride based copolymer electrolytes for alkaline fuel cell applications. In this study, a number of factors including polymer composition drift, molecular weight, and polymer crosslinking is investigated to understand their effects and to precisely control the electrolyte properties including conductivity...

Direct fuel oxidization yields major fuel cell power system simplifications and potential performance advantages, particularly for an automotive power plant application. The system simplification is particularly striking when a direct fuel system is compared to an “indirect” fuel cell system in a vehicle (where the fuel on board must be “reformed” and “cleaned” to provide a hydrogen-rich gas “r...

The idea of a fuel cell was first discovered in 1839 by Christian Friedrich Schönbein [64] and William Grove [27]. Independently from each other they provided the foundation for the development of many different kinds of fuel cells. Today’s fuel cells are mostly classified by the type of electrolyte used in the cells. The most common types are polymer electrolyte fuel cells PEFC (developed by W...

We studied steam reforming of ethanol at room temperature and atmospheric pressure using low energy pulse (LEP) discharge. In this study, we employed characteristic novel reformer, one electrode was made of carbon fibers (o.d. 7.0 μm) bundle. So fuel was supplied to discharge region by capillary action of the fibers and reformed directly by LEP plasma without any pump or heater. When using this...

We report a Pd-Co (3:1)/graphene oxide (Pd3Co /GO) catalyst through a one-step strategy. GO is synthesized from graphite electrodes using ionic liquid-assisted electrochemical exfoliation. Controllable GO-supported Pd3Co electrocatalystis then was reduced by ethylene glycol as a stabilizing agent to prepare highly dispersed PdCo nanoparticles on carbon graphene oxide to be used as oxygen reduct...