Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Power Sources 175 (2008) 82–90 Polyoxymethylenedimethylether (CH 3 O (CH 2 O) n CH 3 ) oxidation on Pt and Pt/Ru supported catalysts F. Vigier a , C. Coutanceau a,∗ , J.M. L´ eger a , J.L. Dubois b a UMR 6503 CNRS – Universit´ e de Poitiers, Equipe Electrocatalyse, 40 avenue du Recteur Pineau, F-86022 Poitiers Cedex, France b ARKEMA, 420 Rue d’Estienne d’Orves, 95705 Colombes Cedex, France Received 24 July 2007; received in revised form 6 September 2007; accepted 16 September 2007 Available online 22 September 2007 Abstract Polyoxymethylenedimethylethers CH 3 O (CH 2 O) n CH 3 with n varying from 1 to 4 are studied for a possible application as fuels in PEMFC. Cyclic voltammetry is performed at Pt, Pt/Ru(50/50), Pt/Ru(80/20) electrodes in acidic medium to evaluate their electroactivity. Electrical perfor- mance of the fuels are evaluated in a 5 cm 2 direct fuel cell for different temperatures and pressures with Pt and Pt/Ru(50/50) catalysts at the anode and Pt at the cathode. The determination of the reaction products is performed in a 25 cm 2 direct fuel cell under working conditions at constant current for 3 h. Preliminary results are very promising regarding achieved power densities. Results pointed out the important role of hydrolysis of these compounds into methanol and formaldehyde in electroreactivity. It is probable that the cell performances are due to the oxidation of the products coming from hydrolysis rather than to direct oxidation of the polyoxymethylenedimethylethers. Polyoxymethylenedimethylethers appear to be attractive candidates as alternative to methanol, which moreover is a toxic (neurotoxin) molecule. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Fuel cells; Catalysts; Platinum; Polyoxymethylenedimethylethers; Ruthenium 1. Introduction Low temperature Fuel Cells are very promising power sup- plies for different applications such as transportation (propulsion and/or Auxiliary Power Units) [1,2], nomad devices (mobile phones, computer, emergency, etc.) [3,4] or stationary systems [5,6]. Because of the difficulty of handling and storing of hydro- gen (which is the most efficient fuel), many research groups tend to develop the direct combustion of liquid fuels: the dras- tic decrease in overall mass energy density when hydrogen is stored makes the use of liquid fuels, such as alcohols, very attractive. Amongst the most studied fuels, methanol and ethanol can be cited. With methanol, which only contains one carbon atom, power densities in the range of 150–200 mW cm -2 can be achieved at 90 ◦ C [7–10], which makes methanol a good liq- uid fuel. But, because of its high toxicity, methanol does not appear as the best candidate, mainly for vehicle and nomad ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 549454895; fax: +33 549453580. E-mail address: christophe.coutanceau@univ-poitiers.fr (C. Coutanceau). applications (cellular phone). Other alcohols have been consid- ered and studied for this purpose. Ethanol is of course the most often studied [11,12] because it is the simplest alcohol after methanol; it displays a limited toxicity and can be produced from biomass (whereas methanol is mainly produced from nat- ural gas). Other oxygenated compounds were also considered for their potential use in fuel cell: dimethyl ether [13–18] and other methoxy fuel [15,19,20]. The direct combustion of poly- oxymethylenedimethylethers (R O (CH 2 O) n R) compounds in a fuel cell can also be an alternative [21]. Some physico- chemical characteristics are given in Table 1. These compounds are liquid at room temperature and thus easy to store. Although their solubility in water decreases with increasing number of oxymethylene groups, these compounds are a good potential “reservoir” of C1-like species. Other possible advantages for their use as fuel in fuel cells are the followings: 1. no C C bonds to cleave, then a complete oxidation into CO 2 of polyoxymethylenedimethylethers can be foreseen, 2. the crossover of the ionomeric membrane by poly- oxymethylenedimethylethers could be limited due to the size of the molecules, 0378-7753/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.09.053