Temperature-Dependent Kinetics of the Anode in the DMFC

Abstract

The methanol oxidation kinetics was studied in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) anode at 303, 323, and 343 K. The experimental result was fitted to a model for the porous anode and the kinetic parameters were extracted. In addition, a simplified kinetic equation for the porous anode was derived which directly gives the current density of the porous anode as a function of the potential, temperature, and methanol concentration. Both the more rigorous kinetic model and the empirical model fit well to the experimental data. The methodology used is shown to be very useful for applied modeling of the DMFC. © 2004 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.