Commercial Carbon Cloth Research Articles

A Glucose Biofuel Cell to Generate Electricity

We fabricated an enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) device based on glucose as fuel, the bioanode consisting in a commercial carbon cloth electrode containing the glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme. The bioanode was prepared by immobilizing GOx in a Nafion matrix. The outcome of the immobilization procedure was tested by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) which indicated a good catalytic activity and stability of the immobilized enzyme toward the reaction of glucose oxidation. The bioanode was the assembled in a glucose fuel cell, using a ferricyanide cathode and a Nafion 117 membrane as electrolyte. Polarization and power density curves were then acquired to evaluate the electrochemical performance of the EFC device demonstrating the applicability of the GOx-modified electrode as promising bioanode for energy production.

A Porous Silicon‐Based Ionomer‐Free Membrane Electrode Assembly for Miniature Fuel Cells

AbstractPrevious work showed the pertinence of using grafted porous silicon as the proton exchange membrane for miniature fuel cells. One of the limitations was the membrane‐electrodes assembly, which required an ionomer, in the current study a 5% Nafion®‐117 solution, to ensure a proton‐conducting link between the commercial carbon cloth electrodes and the membrane. Here, new developments for this fuel cell, with a totally Nafion®‐free process, are reported. The Pt catalyst is sputtered and electrodeposited onto the surface of the proton conducting porous silicon membrane. The initial performance of this fuel cell is shown and demonstrates the validity of the technique.

Nanostructured Conducting Polyaniline Tubules as Catalyst Support for Pt Particles for Possible Fuel Cell Applications

Nanotubules of polyaniline synthesized by template method on commercial carbon cloth have been used as the catalyst support for Pt particles for electro-oxidation of methanol. The ohmic and the charge transfer resistances of the nanotube-based electrode were considerably lower than the polyaniline electrode synthesized by the conventional route. The Pt incorporated polyaniline nanotube electrode exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stability compared to the 20 wt % Pt supported on the VulcanXC 72R carbon and Pt supported on the conventional polyaniline electrode. The electrode fabrication used in the present investigation is particularly attractive to adopt in the solid polymer electrolyte-based fuel cells, which is usually operated under methanol or hydrogen. © 2004 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.