Brief hystory of fuel cells

The present day fuel cell was called “gas battery” by the inventor Willium Grove . In 1889, chemists Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer first adopted the term “fuel cell” when they attempted to build the first practical device of fuel cell using industrial coal gas and air. Development of fuel cells was slow in their initial decades, but fuel cells had gained extensive attention since 1950s. In 1955, chemist Willard Thomas Groubb of U.S General Electric Company applied sulphonated polystyrene ion exchange membrane as electrolyte of fuel cells. Leonard Niedrach a chemist of General Electric Company invented a method of depositing platinum on to this membrane in 1958. Those fuel cells using solid polymer membrane as electrolyte and using platinum as catalyst were called “Grubb-Niedrach Fuel Cell” at that time. This was considered the beginning of PEMFC. First applied low temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells were developed by General Electric Company in the 1960’s for NASA’s Gemini space program. At that time, the PEMFC acted as auxiliary power, and byproduct of fuel cell reaction was pure water for astronauts. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was called firstly the ion exchange membrane fuel cell (IEMFC). It is also called as solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell (SPEFC), polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), solid polymer fuel cell (SPFC) and polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), etc. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell uses solid electrolyte membranes as its electrolyte. The membrane is not only an electronic insulator, but also excellent conductors of hydrogen ion (proton). At present, PEMFCs still use oxygen as oxidant and use hydrogen or methanol as fuels in general. According to different fuels used, PEMFC can be classified as three types: hydrogen proton exchange membrane fuel cells (H2 PEMFCs), methanol reforming fuel cells (MRFCs), direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Earlier DMFC did not belong to PEMFC because alkaline or acidic liquid were used as electrolyte in the DMFC. The performance of the DMFC using such electrolyte is quite poor because the activity of electro-catalyzed oxidation of methanol is very low. Since 1990s, DMFC has gradually become a new member of PEMFC as solid polymer electrolyte membrane was adopted. Hydrogen PEMFCs and DMFCs generate electricity with high efficiency and low emission (pollution). In recent years, the development and commercialization of hydrogen PEMFCs and DMFCs for primary or auxiliary power for stationary, mobile, portable, and urban transportation systems have received increasing attention.