Rarely-observed polycrystalline twinned Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and length-controlled Pt nanorods (NRs) with exposed high index facets were prepared through an unexpectedly catalytic growth approach from low-cost Mn(3)O(4) NPs. The as-prepared Pt NRs exhibit higher catalytic activity and better stability for the oxidization of methanol than commercial Pt/C catalysts, indicating the promise of th...

Methanol crossover (MCO) significantly affects the performance of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). In order to reduce its effect, this study presents in-house carbon nanofiber webs (CNWs) used as a porous methanol barrier for MCO control in a passive DMFC. The CNW is made from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) by using electrospinning and heat treatment. The impacts of PAN concentration and carbonizin...

Direct alcohol fuel cells have been attracting enormous research interest as power sources for vehicles and portable electronic devices because alcohols are readily available, their storage and transport can be easily handled with the existing fuel infrastructure, and they commonly have high mass-specific and volumetric energy densities. Methanol is the most studied fuel for direct alcohol fuel...

We report here a novel proton exchange membrane with remarkably high methanol-permeation resistivity and excellent proton conductivity enabled by carefully designed self-assembled ionic conductive channels. A direct methanol fuel cell utilizing the membrane performs well with a 20 M methanol solution, very close to the concentration of neat methanol.