Professor Li Yinshi and his colleagues at the MOE Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of School of Energy and Power Engineering, XJTU, have recently proposed a Na+-conducting direct formate fuel cell in the absence of added electrolytes (Na-DFFC). This system has a sodium-based cation membrane between the two electrodes, with good ionic conductivity as well as thermal and chemical stability and chemical stability. Meanwhile, hydrolysis of sodium formate provides enough OH-and Na+ions for electrode reaction and ion transport. In experiments, the cell yields a peak power density of 33mW cm-2at 60℃. Contrary to the conventional chlor-alkali process, Na-DFFC is able to generate electricity and produce base simultaneously without contaminating the environment. In the preliminary experiment, the Na-DFFC achieved 13-hour continuous discharge and a theoretical production of 195mg NaOH, demonstrating a wige range of potential applications.

The article about the advance, entitled An Sodium-Ion-Conducting Direct Formate Fuel Cell: Generating Electricity and Producing Base, has come out on the inside cover of Angewandte Chemie International Edition (Impact Factor 11.709), the world's top chemical journal, as “a very important paper”.

Link to the article:  

      Cover: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201704000/full

      Article:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201701816/abstract