2D Crystals Significantly Enhance the Performance of a Working Fuel Cell

Holmes, Stuart M. and Balakrishnan, Prabhuraj and Kalangi, Vasu S. and Zhang, Xiang and Lozada-Hidalgo, Marcelo and Ajayan, Pulickel M. and Nair, Rahul R. (2017) 2D Crystals Significantly Enhance the Performance of a Working Fuel Cell. Advanced Energy Materials, 7 (5): 1601216. ISSN 1614-6832

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Abstract

2D atomic crystals such as single layer graphene (SLG) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) have been shown to be “unexpectedly permeable” to hydrogen ions under ambient conditions with the proton conductivity rising exponentially with temperature. Here, the first successful addition of SLG made by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method is shown to an operational direct methanol fuel cell significantly enhancing the performance of the cell once the temperature is raised above 60 °C, the temperature at which the proton conductivity of SLG is higher than the Nafion membrane on which it is mounted. Above this temperature, the resistance to proton transport of the system is not affected by the graphene but the barrier properties of graphene inhibit methanol crossover. The performance of the fuel cell is shown to increase linearly with coverage of SLG above this temperature. Results show that the maximum power density is increased at 70 °C by 45% in comparison to the standard membrane electrode assembly without graphene. In addition, a membrane with CVD hBN shows enhanced performance across the entire temperature range due to better proton conductivity at lower temperatures.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Advanced Energy Materials
Additional Information:
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: CS. M. Holmes, P. Balakrishnan, V. S. Kalangi, X. Zhang, M. Lozada-Hidalgo, P. M. Ajayan, R. R. Nair, Adv. Energy Mater. 2017, 7, 1601216 10.1002/aenm.201601216 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/aenm.201601216 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2100/2105
Subjects:
?? renewable energy, sustainability and the environmentmaterials science(all) ??
ID Code:
88696
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
30 May 2018 08:24
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 00:52