A Study of Methanol Oxidation by Dynamic Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

Fuel cells utilizing small organic molecules like methanol, ethanol, or formic acid as fuel are promising. The main advantage utilizing such fuels is consumption of a liquid fuel, which significantly simplifies the handling and storage of the fuel [1]. The main drawback to these fuel cells is sluggish oxidation kinetics. The key to increase the reaction kinetics is to understand the reaction mechanism. Thus, the mechanism of methanol oxidation has been extensively studied. In the literature it is now believed that oxidation of methanol proceeds via a parallel mechanism consisting of two different reaction pathways. One pathway is blocking and proceeds via adsorbed CO, and the other is non-blocking and proceeds via soluble byproducts like formaldehyde and formic acid [2]. Most previous studie