Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The objective of this project is to discover and develop catalysts for formic acid oxidation that will improve the power, efficiency and durability of the direct formic acid fuel cells being developed in Canada by our partner organization. Formic acid fuel cells offer an attractive alternative to methanol fuel cells for consumer applications because of their higher power and efficiency, and lower cost and complexity. Their safe fuel capsules can be quicky replaced so that devices such as mobile phones and notebook PCs can be used indefinitely without recharging. Formic acid fuel cells also have the potential to be an important component in sustainable energy systems, since formic acid can be produced from biomass, or from carbon dioxide using renewable energy sources (e.g. solar, wind, hydro), and is much easier to store and transport than hydrogen. One of the main requirements for advances in formic acid fuel cell technology is the development of better catalysts. However, the current understanding of the electrochemical oxidation of formic acid is insufficient for prediction of what will be better than the Pd catalysts that are currently used. We therefore propose to combine high-throughput screening of Pd alloy catalysts in a multi-anode fuel cell with detailed mechanistic studies, catalyst-layer engineering, and long-term evaluation in fuel cells. The knowledge and understanding gained from the screening and mechanistic studies will guide the development of improved commercial catalysts.