A Simple, Membrane-Free, Direct Glycerol Fuel Cell Utilizing a Precious Metal-Free Cathode and Gold-Plated Anode Surfaces

Abstract

As bio-diesel production continues around the world, the amount of low-grade glycerol, a byproduct from the process, in increasing, as is the demand for a simple, easy-to-make, fuel cell capable of running off glycerol and oxygen from the air. Despite the research that has already been done with glycerol fuel cells, the complexity of the fuel cell designs for such a simple fuel appears to be prohibitive toward the actualization of such a cell. Here the simplest of fuel cells, an alkaline, membrane-free, glycerol fuel cell with a non-platinum-containing MnO2 cathode is explored. Glycerol oxidation is catalyzed on various surfaces including carbon felt, platinum, and silver-plated nickel with and without gold plating. The maximum power this glycerol fuel cell generates, with 1.4 M glycerol and 8.0 M KOH, is 1.27 mW cm−2 at 200 mV. It has an open circuit voltage of 704 mV. Additionally, the effects of different, gold-plated anodic surfaces, electrolytes and temperatures are also explored. This work demonstrates the feasibility of this simple, reusable robust cell design using pure and crude glycerol from bio-diesel production and preliminarily explores the products of this reaction.

Glycerol Electro-Oxidation in Alkaline Media and Alkaline Direct Glycerol Fuel Cells

“…1.5 M GLY. A similar trend was observed by Tseng and Scott for membraneless ADGFC with a maximum MPD at 1.4 M GLY [139]. It is interesting to denote that, with only one exception, all the values of the (MPD xMGLY /MPD 1MGLY ) ratio are <1.…”

“…LFµFCs operate by using an anode and a cathode, as it is for a conventional fuel cell; however, they dispense the use of an ionic permeable membrane. The performance of LFµFCs with glycerol as the fuel was evaluated and the results were promising [137][138][139][140]. Table 4.…”

Synthesis of Pd and Pt Based Low Cost Bimetallic Anode Electrocatalyst for Glycerol Electrooxidation in Membraneless Air Breathing Microfluidic Fuel Cell

“…Similarly, CuPt/C produced maximum power density of 21.8 mW/cm 2 and 23 mW/cm 2 for crude and analytical glycerol at 25 o C, respectively. Yi Jie et al [35] worked on glycerol based membraneless fuel Cell using gold plated surface as anode and MnO 2 as cathode. The OCV of 0.704 V and maximum power density of 1.27 mW/cm 2 (at 0.2 V) was achieved using 1.4 M glycerol and 8.0 M KOH.…”

Recent Progress in Electrocatalytic Glycerol Oxidation

“…The maximum power density of the glycerol fuel cell reached to 1.27 mW cm −2 with an open‐circuit voltage of 704 mV. [ 20 ] As research continues, the performance of GOR involved fuel cells is constantly improved. [ 21,35 ] Martins et al fabricated an Fe‐decorated Pt/C‐modified carbon paper anode and applied in an assembled fuel cell that couples alkaline GOR reaction with acidic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).…”