Supported Pt, Pd and Au nanoparticle anode catalysts for anion-exchange membrane fuel cells with glycerol and crude glycerol fuels

[Display omitted] ► Pt/C, Pd/C and Au/C catalysts with small diameters were synthesized. ► Electro-oxidation of glycerol activity in alkaline electrolyte: Pt/C>Pd/C>Au/C. ► The AEMFC performance was studied with both high purity and crude glycerol fuels. ► The effects of crude glycerol and KOH concentrations were investigated. ► Pt/C anode crude glycerol AEMFC exhibited a peak power density of 184.2mWcm−2. Carbon supported Pt, Pd, and Au nanoparticles (NPs) catalysts with small diameters (2.4–3.5nm) were prepared through a solution-phase reduction method, and applied as the model catalysts for electro-oxidation of both high-purity glycerol and biodiesel-derived crude glycerol. The half cell investigations showed that Pt/C has the highest activity in the low potential range, which can be further facilitated at elevated temperatures. The anion-exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) investigations demonstrated no obvious drop in peak power density on Pt/C anode, when the fuel was switched from high-purity glycerol to crude glycerol, indicating a good stability of the Pt/C against poisoning/deactivation from the impurities in crude glycerol. The tests also showed that on all these three model catalysts, a volcano-type relationship exists between the fuel cell performance and crude glycerol concentration at a fixed KOH concentration, while with a given crude glycerol concentration, the performance monotonically increased with the KOH concentration increasing. The highest performances were achieved with 6.0M KOH+1.0M crude glycerol at 80°C, which are 184.2, 93.9, and 50.1mWcm−2 on Pt/C, Pd/C, and Au/C anodes, respectively.