Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Development.

The focus of the first year of this two-year program was the development of an electrolyte system for fuel cells and other electrochemical reactors, which allows proton transfer through the electrolyte system but prevents crossover of lager chemical species from one electrode side to the other electrode side of the fuel cell. The first year effort of this program resulted in the filing of a U.S. patent application in Jan. 16, 1996 that was issued on Dec. 8, 1998 United States Patent 5,846,669. The patent was based on work published in 1995 by Cong Pu, Wenhua Huang, K. L. Ley and E. S. Smotkin, A Methanol Impermeable Proton Conducting Composite Electrolyte System, J. Electrochem. Soc., 142, L119-L120 1995. This work was attributed to the DARPA grant. The second year of the program was focused on the development of new anodes for direct methanol fuel cells. This work resulted in a second patent entitled Single Phase Ternary Pt-Ru-Os Catalysts for Direct Oxidation Fuel Cells United States Patent 5,856,036. Ley et al. based this patent on a publication, Methanol Oxidation on single-Phase Pt-Ru-Os Ternary Alloys, J. Electrochem. Soc., 144, 1543-1548 1997. This work was attributed to the DARPA grant.