A Membrane-Free Neutral pH Formate Fuel Cell Enabled by a Selective Nickel Sulfide Oxygen Reduction Catalyst
Name
Fuel cell Manuscript Final_Final_Final_Final_revision_Final[1].pdf
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987.98 KB
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Checksum (MD5)
05625a060576f8a3e7d9c99e91b932ef
Author(s)
Yan, Bing
Concannon, Nolan M.
Milshtein, Jarrod David
Brushett, Fikile R
Surendranath, Yogesh
Date Issued
May 2017
Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Yan, Bing et al. “A Membrane-Free Neutral pH Formate Fuel Cell Enabled by a Selective Nickel Sulfide Oxygen Reduction Catalyst.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 56, 26 (May 2017): 7496–7499 © 2017 Wiley Blackwell
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Polymer electrolyte membranes employed in contemporary fuel cells severely limit device design and restrict catalyst choice, but are essential for preventing short‐circuiting reactions at unselective anode and cathode catalysts. Herein, we report that nickel sulfide Ni[subscript 3]S[subscript 2] is a highly selective catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in the presence of 1.0 m formate. We combine this selective cathode with a carbon‐supported palladium (Pd/C) anode to establish a membrane‐free, room‐temperature formate fuel cell that operates under benign neutral pH conditions. Proof‐of‐concept cells display open circuit voltages of approximately 0.7 V and peak power values greater than 1 mW cm[superscript −2], significantly outperforming the identical device employing an unselective platinum (Pt) cathode. The work establishes the power of selective catalysis to enable versatile membrane‐free fuel cells.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201702578
