Identifying critical factors for catalyst performance in methanol oxidation by Box–Behnken design

Abstract

Methanol oxidation is one of the most important processes in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Proper anodic catalysis ensures high energy conversion and operation cost of the fuel cell. Although a proton exchange membrane is a successful electrolyte of DMFC, its drawbacks or limitations can be avoided by replacing the solid membrane with a liquid electrolyte that is not subject to evaporation, especially at elevated temperatures. A promising candidate for such electrolyte is an ionic liquid. The performance of the anode catalyst will be affected when the electrolyte has been changed. In our paper, we report a fast Box–Behnken design to identify the most critical factors that would determine the performance of a specific catalyst—platinum-coated gold nanoporous film (PGNF). Our research revealed that the catalytic kinetics is the critical factor for PGNF in aqueous solution electrolyte; while catalyst poisoning was the most critical when the ionic liquid BMImBF₄ was the electrolyte. This example of how statistic tools could be used in the development of fuel cells could be expanded to the studies of other systems.

Graphical abstract