Aspects of the anodic oxidation of methanol

This paper describes some aspects of recent investigations into the anodic oxidation of methanol. Methanol has long been proposed as an anode fuel for a fuel cell, chiefly because of its ease of carriage, distribution and manipulation. However, methanol is very much more difficult to oxidise anodically than hydrogen, the more conventional anode fuel, and this has hampered development of commercial direct methanol fuel cells. Platinum-ruthenium catalysts are the most active discovered to date. Some advances in electrocatalysis of the methanol reaction by non-noble materials are discussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.