Nanostructured carbon supported Pd-ceria as anode catalysts for anion exchange membrane fuel cells fed with polyalcohols

In this manuscript we present a new anode catalyst, a Pd-CeO2/C hybrid nanostructured material composed of nanostructured Pd and nanostructured CeO2 supported on C for direct polyalcohol fuel cells. This material fully characterized by HR-TEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, TGA and surface area determination techniques (BET and Chemisorption) is studied for the electrooxidation of ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol in electrochemical half cells and complete AEM-FCs. At a cell temperature of 60 °C peak power densities of around 50 mW cm-2 are obtained compared to 20-25 mW cm-2 for an equivalent Pd/C catalyst. For the first time the energy efficiency of such fuel cells has been determined with a value of 2% obtained for the cell fed with 1,2-propandiol. All oxidation products for each fuel have been identified and quantified using HPLC and NMR spectroscopy. From ethylene glycol 80% of glycolate is formed while from 1,2-propandiol 58% of lactate is formed. Both of these compounds are key industrial chemicals.