Characterization of Alternative Anode Catalysts for Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell

Direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs) are potential alternative power sources for portable devices such as cellular phone, personal digital assistants (PDA) and laptop computers. In this study, we developed the catalysts for great performance of fuel cell, and investigated their characteristics by using EDS and SEM. Pt-Pd catalysts showed uniform size and homogeneous distribution. As the content of palladium increased, the performance of DFAFC increased. Pd black showed the greatest performance among the tine catalysts tested. Also. Pt-Pd (1:1) catalyst had an excellent maximum power density of 120 mW/cm(2). As the operating temperature increased, fuel cell performance was increased due to a reaction activity increases of catalyst. But, temperature had only a slight effect on the performance of fuel cell in the best activity range of membrane.