New Technique Enhances Fuel Cell Efficiency and Removes Toxic Heavy Metal Ions

There may be a new method to enhance fuel cell efficiency. Scientists have created a new technique that not only ups efficiency, but also removes toxic, heavy metal ions.

The direct methanol fuel cell (DFMC) has been a promising energy conversion device both for electric vehicles and portable devices. However, carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is one of the main factors that reduces its performance. In addition, chromium(Cr (VI)) is also present, which is a harmfully toxic, carcinogenic heavy metal in water. That's why researchers decided to search for a better way to use DFMC without these harmful products.

The scientists first applied the Cr (VI) as a type of "CO scavenger" to the DMFC. This new method not only uses the redox process to clean the plantinum electrode surface by transforming CO into CO2, but also causes Cr (VI) to convert into Cr (III), which is far less toxic.

"Fuel cells have presented obstacles such as low performance and CO poisoning which have prevented them from becoming possible, next generation energy sources until now," said Yung-Eun Sung, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This new hybrid fuel cell technology is expected to propel the deployment of direct methanol fuel cells."

The findings reveal a new way to reduce the toxicity of these fuel cells. Not only that, but the potential maintained a nearly constant value of up to 10 hours, and the presence of Cr (VI) was completely absent. The technique also enhances the maximum power density by 20 percent.

This new method could be huge in terms of finding alternative energy sources. In the future, it's possible that these fuel cells could be used in everything from electric vehicles to small, electronic devices.

The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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