Fundamental Aspects of Direct Liquid-Alcohol Fuel Cells

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Direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) and specifically the direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) are attractive systems for portable power sources since these systems can be designed comparatively simple, the operating times are extensive and the fuels can easily be produced from biomass. However, fundamental issues for designing an efficient direct ethanol fuel cell have to be addressed: A major problem of direct ethanol fuel cells is the lack of suitable electrocatalysts and specifically tailored gas diffusion electrodes for both anode and cathode electrodes. At the anode, the reaction mechanism and kinetics have to be understood and eventually accelerated to minimize the loss of the cell. Furthermore the formation of poisonous intermediates that lower the cell efficiency and complicate the handling of the cell has to be avoided. At the cathode, ethanol insensitive catalysts which are selective for the reduction of oxygen to water are required. The project aims at deriving strategies to solve these problems based on a fundamental approach for direct ethanol and direct ethylene glycol fuel cells as well as to obtain fundamental mechanistic insights.