A high-performance ethanol–hydrogen peroxide fuel cell

Abstract

In conventional ethanol–hydrogen peroxide fuel cells, the cathode potential is created by the reduction reaction of hydrogen peroxide. In this work, we propose to create the cathode potential by introducing a redox couple to the cathode while using hydrogen peroxide to chemically charge the redox ions. The idea not only completely eliminates the mixed-potential issue associated with the direct reduction of hydrogen peroxide, but also enables faster cathodic electrochemical kinetics with no catalysts. Experimentally, it is demonstrated that the ethanol–hydrogen peroxide fuel cell with a redox couple of V(IV)/V(V) yields a peak power density of 450 mW cm⁻² at 60 °C, which is 87.5% higher than that of the conventional cell with direct reduction of hydrogen peroxide.