Impurities in the methanol fuel on the performance of direct methanol fuel cell

직접메탄올 연료전지의 성능에 미치는 메탄올 연료의 불순물

The impurities in the methanol fuel that is used for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) could greatly affect the performance of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). The most common impurities in the commercial methanol fuel are mainly ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, or ammonia. In this study, the effect of impurities in methanol fuel was investigated on the performance of MEA. The MEA for DMFC were prepared using a semi-automatic bar-coating machine, which can prepare the catalyst layer with uniform thickness for MEA. As a result, a single cell supplied with one of the 6 different kinds of methanol fuels showed a significant degradation of the fuel cell performance. The most common impurities in the commercial methanol fuel is mainly ethanol, acetone, acetaldehyde, or ammonia. The effects of the kind and the concentration of impurities in the methanol fuels were investigated on the performance of MEA for DMFC. We will propose the optimum compositions and limit concentration of impurities in methanol fuel for high performance of MEA for DMFC.