Carbon dioxide vent for direct methanol fuel cells

✍ Scribed by Shruti Prakash; William Mustain; Paul A. Kohl

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 916 KB
• Volume: 185
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-7753
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2008.06.050

✦ Synopsis

Passive, stand-alone, direct methanol fuel cells require a pressure management system that releases CO 2 produced in the anode chamber. However, this must be done without allowing the methanol fuel to escape. In this paper, two siloxane membranes are investigated and shown to selectively vent CO 2 from the anode chamber. The addition of hydrophobic additives, 1,6-divinylperfluorohexane and 1,9-decadiene, improved the selectivity of the siloxane membranes. The best performing CO 2 vent was obtained with 50:50 wt% poly(1-trimethyl silyl propyne) and 1,6-divinylperfluorohexane.