Nuclear magnetic resonance investigations on electrochemical reactions of low temperature fuel cells operating in acidic conditions

The article focuses on NMR investigations of electrochemical reactions and dynamic properties closely related to electrochemical reactions in low temperature FCs operating in acidic conditions such as polymer electrolyte membrane FCs and direct alcohol FCs, mainly reported over the last 10 years. The first in situ NMR investigation of FCs was carried out with a homemade toroid cavity detector NMR probe dedicated for in situ NMR analyses of the electrochemical reactions on the different anode catalysts, such as carbon supported PtRu, and Pt in real direct methanol FCs. Compounds in the anode exhausts of direct ethanol FCs have been detected under operating conditions by using high performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography, however, sequential trapping of the electrochemical reaction products was necessary to convert the products to chemicals detectable by high performance liquid chromatography and a cold trap to collect anode products was used for the gas chromatography analyses.