Powering Fuel Cells with CO via Aqueous Polyoxometalates and Gold Catalysts

Abstract

Electricity was produced by catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) by using gold catalysts at room temperature. The observed rates are faster than conventional processes operating at 500 kelvin or higher for the conversion of CO with water to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide through the water-gas shift (WGS). By eliminating the WGS reaction, we remove the need to transport and vaporize liquid water in the production of energy for portable applications. This process can use CO-containing gas streams from the catalytic reforming of hydrocarbons to produce an aqueous solution of reduced polyoxometalate compounds that can be used to generate power. The reduced polyoxometalate can be reoxidized in fuel cells that contain simple carbon anodes.

Polyoxometalate-mediated electron transfer–oxygen transfer oxidation of cellulose and hemicellulose to synthesis gas

“…As noted above, CO is partially oxidized to CO 2 in the absence of O 2 during the transformation of the carbohydrates. In the past, such a transformation has been carried out using a polyoxometalate together with a gold catalyst 28 . This leads to the possibility that H 5 PV 2 Mo 10 O 40 alone in a mineral acid could be used to carry out a water gas shift reaction at very low temperatures.…”

Synthesis and conductivity of substituted heteropoly acid with Dawson structure H7[Ga(H2O)P2W17O61]·18H2O

“…Because the dissociated protons have good mobility, the HPA crystals have some characteristics of a 'pseudo liquid phase'. They are, in effect, superionic protonic conductors, and are promising solid electrolytes [3,4]. In recent years, studies on the conductivity of heteropoly acids have progressed rapidly, and the research fields have also been expanded from the initial binary heteropoly acid to ternary or quaternary heteropoly acids.…”

A CO-Tolerant Hydrogen Fuel Cell System Designed by Combining with an Extremely Active Pt/CNT Catalyst

“…In the case of selective oxidation of CO on the FeO x /Pt/TiO 2 catalyst, oxidation of CO proceeds via HCOO -intermediate and the oxidation of HCOO with OH is the rate determining step [15]. This mechanism well explains the enhancement of the oxidation of CO by H 2 The experiments on Pt/CNT were performed by flowing H 2 containing rather high concentration of CO (CO/ H 2 = 0.10 in Fig. 1).…”

“…From a view of clean and efficient energy source, various types of fuel cell have been proposed [1,2], and working models using hydrogen or methanol are already in the market. However, one awkward problem is the poisoning of Pt-anode by a trace amount of CO [3].…”