Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was pioneered by Shell
Research in England and Exxon-Alsthom in France during the 1960s and 1970s [1]. DMFC as a kind of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been receiving increasing attention because of its advantages of easy transportation, storage and refill of methanol, reduced system weight, size and complexity, high-energy efficiency and low-temperature operation [2][3][4]. Therefore, DMFC is the most attractive research point in fuel cell area.
In recent years, it has been recognised that there are two major challenges faced in DMFC: (i) methanol can permeate through proton exchange membrane from anode to cathode, which not only results in the mixed potential in cathode and a loss of the cell voltage, but also leads to a loss of fuel in anode and thus to diminish fuel efficiency. (ii) The lower performance of DMFC is caused by the poor kinetics of anode methanol electrooxidation reaction, which can only be overcome by developing novel and high performance anode catalysts [5,6]. Enhancing activity and stability of anode catalyst is one of the key technologies for the commercialisation of DMFC.
At present, PtRu alloy is still the most active binary alloy catalyst for methanol electrooxidation in DMFC [6,7]. However, Pt is a noble metal and its reserve in the geological stratum is very limited; it is still the indispensable material for fuel cell catalyst [8,9]. As for the application of DMFC, both improvement of the catalytic activity and minimisation of the Pt requirement will be essential. Therefore, the exploration of