Methanol-Tolerant Pt-Free Materials for ORR in DMFC

In September 2015 193 Member Countries of the United Nations signed the 2030 Agenda. In this historical document, approved by UN General Assembly, 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030 were set. The seventh goal is “Affordable and Clean Energy”, i.e. guaranteeing everyone access to an economical, reliable, sustainable and modern energy system. Electrochemical systems represent good candidates to reach this goal, both as energy storage systems, e.g. fuel cells and zinc-air batteries, and conversion systems, e.g. supercapacitors. In the former, the reduction reaction represents the most challenging aspect since the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is characterized by a sluggish kinetic, which limits the energy-conversion efficiency [5-6] and needs an efficient catalyst. Platinum is the most used material, but it is characterized by high costs, limited availability, and technological limitations, as Ostwald ripening and coalescence. The worldwide research to replace Pt with a Platinum Group Metals free material with relatively similar efficiency, higher stability but lower costs started in the sixties with the seminal work of Jasinsky on metal phthalocyanines. Since then, many articles about metal-doped nitrogen- modified carbon-based materials with very astonishing results have been published. The use of these materials in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) has been explored and studied in the last few years. These power supply systems are very promising since they are characterized by a good efficiency and a high fuel energy density (6.1 Wh g−1). However, an important aspect that must be considered in the development of this system is the tolerance to methanol of the cathode material since methanol crossover through the membrane from anode to cathode causes a reduction of cell voltage of about 0.1-0.2 V (with Pt-based cathode). In this presentation some data about methanol-tolerance of Pt-free carbon-based materials, prepared by using an easy synthetic method, will be presented. Results are interesting and promising, since the good performance of these materials is maintained up to a MeOH concentration of about 5M. These instructions are an example of what a properly prepared meeting abstract should look like. Proper column and margin measurements are indicated.