Performance of Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell With Self-Assembled PEMs

Direct liquid fuel cells have attracted intensive research because of the promised application in Portable Fuel Cell Systems. Liquid fuel crossover through the proton exchange membranes (PEMs, e.g. Nafion™ membrane) is one of the major obstacles that currently prevent the widespread commercial applications of direct liquid fuel cell. In this paper, PEMs constructed by self-assembling metal nanoparticles on Nafion™ membranes were prepared to probe the crossover behaviors. The results show that the fuel crossover has a remarkable decrease comparing with the original PEMs. This satisfactory performance gives the self-assembled PEMs a promised prospect in direct liquid fuel cells.