Date of Award

Winter 2012

Project Type

Thesis

Program or Major

Chemical Engineering

Degree Name

Master of Science

First Advisor

U K Mathur

Abstract

Under this work an automated 5 inch single-cell PEM fuel cell was retrofitted with a computer controlled syringe pump and operated as a DAFC. Catalyst synthesis procedures were developed in-house for DAFC catalysts preparations. Six catalysts, PtSn/C, Pt2Sn/C, Pt 2SnRu/C, PtSnRu0.5/C, PtSn0.5Ru/C and Pd/C were prepared, and their mass composition estimated through mass balance calculations. A series of experiments for VI performance data and power output were performed in the DAFC at different temperatures (75°C, 80°C, 85°C) and 1M ethanol flow rates (0.32ml/min, 1ml/min, 2ml/min) with a fixed catalyst loading of 1mg/cm2 platinum. It was found that the binary platinum-tin catalysts produced about 18% more power than the ternary platinum-tin-ruthenium catalysts in the DAFC.

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