A high-performance hybrid direct carbon fuel cell with tandem catalysis in the dendritic channeled anode

Abstract

Hybrid direct carbon fuel cells (HDCFCs) are promising to achieve high power density, good fuel-electrode contact, and high carbon-fuel conversion efficiency due to increased reaction sites and hybrid routines of carbon utilization. However, the performance of HDCFC is greatly restricted by mass transfer and detrimental carbon deposition. The so-called CO–CO2 shuttle process, i. e., the coupling of the electrochemical reaction of CO to CO2 and subsequent discharge of CO2 towards the C fuel surface for gasification, is the key mass transfer process needed to be optimized. This study demonstrates a novel high-performance HDCFCs anode by integrating C-gasification tandem catalysis in dendritic channel anode support (t-HDCFCs), which greatly enhances the CO–CO2 shuttle and mitigates carbon deposition. As a result, the t-HDCFC delivers a comparable or even higher electrochemical performance than the other HDCFCs under the same operation conditions, such as a peak power density of 556 mW cm−2 at 750 °C.