Passive direct alcohol fuel cell using methanol and 2-propanol mixture as a fuel

Abstract

This article examines the effect of addition of small concentration of 2-propanol on the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) in passive mode. The different concentration ratio of the alcohol mixture (methanol +2-propanol) is used with constant methanol concentration and by varying 2-propanol concentration in the solution. The new passive direct alcohol fuel cell (DAFC) performance with different alcohol concentration ratio (ACR) has been compared with conventional passive DMFC. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) test, polarization test, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are carried out to complete the different aspect of the cell performance. The result shows that DAFC with different ACR yields the better performance than the conventional passive DMFC. In this study, the passive DAFC at 1:0.5 ACR shows the optimum cell performance.