Alkaline anion–exchange membranes (AAEM) for alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells (APEFC) were successfully prepared using electron beam irradiated poly(ethylene–co– tetrafluoroethylene) precursor films grafted with vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) monomer. The resulting chloromethyl groups were subsequently reacted with trimethylamine to form quaternary ammonium anion–exchange functional head–gro...

A commercial PtRu/C catalyst postdoped with nitrogen demonstrates a significantly higher performance (~10-20% improvement) in the anode of an alkaline direct methanol fuel cell than an unmodified commercial PtRu/C catalyst control. The enhanced performance shown herein is attributed at least partially to the increased electrochemical surface area of the PtRu/C after postdoping with nitrogen.

the present paper explores the impact of an on-board hydrogen harvesting system (fuel reformer) on the overall efficiency of a fuel-cell powered vehicle. various methods of hydrogen production for automotive applications have been discussed first. as the hydrogen production is one of the major challenges for application of proton exchange membrane (pem) fuel cells, especially in vehicular indus...

it is expected that residential units may replace   traditional heat and power production systems with cogeneration ones. among the different cogeneration systems, fuel cell based systems are a suitable choice due to their high efficiency, high power density, low emission and low noise. in this paper, a cogeneration system based on solid oxide fuel cells is examined. the system, including the f...

1.1 Background Thanks to the breakthroughs in microfabrication technologies, numerous concepts of microsystems including micro aerial vehicles, microbots, and nanosatellites have been proposed. Contrary to ordinary electronic devices, these microsystems perform mechanical work and require the extended operation. As their functions are getting complex and advanced, their energy consumption is al...

Palladium nanoparticles supported on carbon black powder (Vulcan XC-72) nanocomposite (Pd/C) are synthesized as the catalyst for the anodic oxidation of glucose for use in a direct glucose alkaline fuel cell (DGAFC). Characterization of the catalyst is carried out using physical and electrochemical methods. It is observed that Palladium nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed onto the carbon blac...

in the present study, the effect of porosity on the cathode microstructure (50:50 wt. % lsm: ysz) of a solid oxide fuel cell (sofc) has been examined. a 3-d finite element method for mixed ionic and electronic conducting cathodes (miec) is presented to study the effects of porosity on cell performance. each microstructure was realized using the monte carlo approach with the isotropic type of gr...

Improving cell performance and durability through both new materials and membrane electrode processing optimization is needed for the commercialization of alkaline membrane fuel cell (AMFC) technologies. In this work, we adopted an in-situ cross-linking strategy of an anion-conducting block copolymer to prepare durable ionomers for use in alkaline membrane fuel cells (AMFCs). Our goal was to us...

Tunable alkaline anion-exchange membranes based on QPMBV are synthesized using a bottom-up approach, miniemulsion copolymerization, which can incorporate functional groups into the copolymers with designated composition and high molecular weight. The mechanical and electrochemical properties of the obtained QPMBV membranes are tuned by varying the composition. It is found that the ion exchange ...

In view of the stringent CO intolerance of the state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, it is desirable to explore CO-free fuel processing alternatives. In recent years, step-wise reforming of hydrocarbons has been proposed for production of CO-free hydrogen for fuel cell applications. The decomposition of hydrocarbons (first step of the step-wise reforming process) has been ...