Noble metal nanowires incorporated Nafion® membranes for reduction of methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cells

We electrodeposited noble metal (palladium, platinum) nanowires into the hydrophilic pores of Nafion membrane for mitigating the problem of methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). The DMFC performance result shows that the composite membranes yield lower rate of methanol crossover and better cell performance than the pure Nafion® membrane. At low current densities, the Pd nanowire incorporated Nafion membrane shows the best performance. In comparison, the highest performance is achieved at higher current densities with the Pt nanowire modified Nafion membrane. Based on the above findings, we suggest that for the Pd nanowire incorporated Nafion membrane, the mechanism for the suppression of the methanol crossover is mainly the blocking effect due to the ‘narrowed’ hydrophilic channels in Nafion membrane. For the Pt nanowire modified Nafion membrane, the mechanism includes both increasing the membrane tortuosity and so-called ‘on-way consumption’ of methanol on the Pt nanowires deposited into the Nafion membrane when the fuel cell is discharging.