Investigation of an Anode Catalyst for a Direct Dimethyl Ether Fuel Cell

In this work, we compared investigation of Pt/multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and Pt/Vulcan XC-72 anode catalysts for direct dimethyl ether fuel cells (DDFC). The homemade catalysts were characterized using a transmission electron micrograph (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The cyclic voltammogram analyses revealed that the Pt/MWNTs showed a higher catalytic activity for dimethyl ether electro-oxidation, compared with the Pt/Vulcan XC-72 catalyst. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with the Pt/MWNTs anode catalyst presented the maximum power density of 38.4 mW cm(-2), which was higher than that with the Pt/Vulcan XC-72 one (32.4 mW cm(-2)). Moreover, the performance decay rate of the MEA with Pt/MWNTs was lower than that with Pt/Vulcan XC-72 (after a 56 h test). It indicated that the Pt/MWNTs can be expected to be a more suitable catalyst for the DDFC.