Air-breathing fuel cell and cell stack for the oxidation of ions using oxygen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9882228-B2
Application number	US-201214127002-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2012
Priority date	Jul 13, 2011
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

The invention describes an air-breathing fuel cell for the oxidation of ions with air or oxygen, having an anode half cell and a cathode half cell. A first ion-conducting membrane and a second ion-conducting membrane is introduced between the half cells, and the second ion-conducting membrane is coated at least in regions on the side orientated towards the cathode half cell with a catalyst for the reduction of oxygen. According to the invention, the air-breathing fuel cell is characterised in that an oxidation zone for the oxidation of ions with negative standard electrode potential is provided between the ion-conducting membranes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An air-breathing fuel cell for the oxidation of ions with air or oxygen, having an anode half cell and a cathode half cell, a first ion-conducting membrane and a second ion-conducting membrane being introduced between the half cells, and the second ion-conducting membrane being coated at least in regions on the side orientated towards the cathode half cell with a catalyst for the reduction of oxygen,
wherein an oxidation zone for the oxidation of ions with negative standard electrode potential is provided between the ion-conducting membranes.

2. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein ions are contained in the anode half cell, ions selected from the group consisting of V2+, U3+, Ti3+, Ti2+, In2+, In+, Cr2+, Eu2+, S2O62−, S2O42−, S2O3−, H2PO2−, HPO32−, SO32−, BH4−, Sn2+, HsnO2−, AsO2−, SbO2−.

3. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein an oxidant, oxygen and/or air, is contained in the cathode half cell and/or in the oxidation zone.

4. The air-breathing cell according to claim 1 , wherein the anode half cell comprises a carbon plate and a porous carbon material, a graphite felt, the porous carbon material contacting the carbon plate and the first ion-conducting membrane.

5. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the cathode half cell comprises a carbon plate and a gas diffusion layer consisting of carbon, the gas diffusion layer consisting of carbon contacting the carbon plate and the second ion-conducting membrane.

6. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the oxidation zone comprises
a) an acidic solution, sulphuric acid and/or phosphoric acid; or
b) a basic solution, sodium hydroxide solution and/or potassium hydroxide solution; or
c) a neutral salt solution, sodium chloride and/or potassium chloride.

7. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the oxidation zone comprises a porous auxiliary electrode which has a standard electrode potential which enables the oxidation of the ions.

8. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the catalyst is selected from the group consisting of noble metals, in particular platinum, ruthenium, palladium and rhodium, and also the alloys thereof.

9. The air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 , wherein the oxidation zone is connected to a detector via a supply line and discharge line and/or comprises a detector, the detector being suitable for determining the type and concentration of reduction agent in the oxidation zone and is a UV/VIS spectrometer and/or a voltage measuring device.

10. A cell stack made of more than one air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 .

11. A use of the air-breathing fuel cell according to claim 1 as a battery.

Assignees

• Noack Jens
• Berger Thomas
• Tuebke Jens
• Pinkwart Karsten
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E V

Inventors

• Noack Jens
• Berger Thomas
• Tuebke Jens
• Pinkwart Karsten

Classifications

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• Y02E60/528

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M8/04186 Primary

  of liquid-charged or electrolyte-charged reactants · CPC title

• H01M4/92

  Metals of platinum group (H01M4/94 {, H01M4/9058} take precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/0444

  Concentration; Density (H01M8/04492 takes precedence) · CPC title