Activating needle coke to develop anode catalyst for direct methanol fuel cell

Physical and electrochemical qualities were analyzed after KOH activation of a direct methanol fuel cell using needle coke as anode supporter. The results of research on support loaded with platinum-ruthenium suggest that an activated KOH needle coke container has the lowest onset potential and the highest degree of catalyst activity among all commercial catalysts. Through an analysis of the CO stripping voltammetry, we found that KOH activated catalysis showed a 21% higher electrochemical active surface area (ECSA), with a value of 31.37 m(2)/g, than the ECSA of deactivated catalyst (25.82 m(2)/g). The latter figure was 15% higher than the value of one specific commercial catalyst (TEC86E86).