Current Production Dependence on Formate Concentration in Formic Acid Fuel Cells

There has been considerable interest in recent years regarding the use of direct formic acid fuel cells to power portable electronics. Although promising results have been demonstrated by these cells there has been little investigation into the optimization of the fuel source. In this study formic acid was mixed in solution with sodium formate in varying concentrations, but always to a total concentration of 5M. Preliminary results from these experiments suggest that increasing the formate concentration will significantly increase the current density with a given amount of catalyst. Results indicate a potential increase of 10-20 times using a solution composed of 4M sodium formate and 1 M formic acid in comparison with a basic 5M formic acid solution. In addition to current output, Tafel plots for the varying solutions will also be examined.