A preliminary study of room temperature direct ethyl formate fuel cells for consumer electronic applications

There is an increasing interest in the development of room temperature fuel cells for consumer electronic applications. Ethyl formate is an ideal fuel-more reactive than methanol and relatively harmless. An attempt to construct an ethyl formate room temperature fuel cell is described. Though the half cell performance of both the Pt/WO3 anode and the Pt/C cathode give encouraging results, the poisoning of the cathode by ethyl formate led to a very low full cell performance. It is concluded that unless efficient permselective membranes are developed, room temperature dissolved fuel fuel cells are not practical. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.