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Science 2 September 1994:
Vol. 265. no. 5177, pp. 1418 - 1420
DOI: 10.1126/science.265.5177.1418
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Articles

A Redox Fuel Cell That Operates with Methane as Fuel at 120°C

Steven H. Bergens 1, Christopher B. Gorman 1, G. Tayhas R. Palmore 1, and George M. Whitesides 1

1 Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

Platinum black efficiently catalyzes the oxidation of methane by iron(III) to generate carbon dioxide and eight equivalents of iron(II) in solutions of sulfuric acid in water. The rate of oxidation increases over 4 hours to reach sim4.83 x 10-2 moles of iron(II) per gram atom of surface platinum per second. A redox fuel cell was assembled that used this reaction in a liquid reformer to generate soluble reducing equivalents of iron(II) from methane, which was electrochemically oxidized to iron(III) in the cell. A vanadium(V)-(IV)—nitric acid-O2 redox system catalyzed the electrochemical reduction of O2. The open-circuit voltage of the cell was 0.48 volt, and the maximum power output of the cell was 8.1 milliwatts per cubic centimeter of graphite felt electrode.

Submitted on March 25, 1994
Accepted on July 1, 1994


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Electrochemical Studies of a Truncated Laccase Produced in Pichia pastoris.
M. Gelo-Pujic, H.-H. Kim, N. G. Butlin, and G. T. R. Palmore (1999)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 65, 5515-5521
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