Hydrogen-intercalation enhanced the anti-CO poisoning ability of palladium-copper metallene for direct formate fuel cells

The direct formate fuel cells (DFFCs) are energy conversion devices that use formate as fuel. However, COads generated from formate dehydration accumulate on the Pd surface and cause catalyst poisoning and deactivation. Here, we constructed a hydrogen intercalated palladium-copper metallene (PdCuH metallene) to enhance the anti-CO poisoning ability. For formate oxidation, the mass and specific activities of PdCuH metallene/C were 3.4 and 3.2 times those of Pd/C. While in ORR, the mass and specific activities of PdCuH metallene reached 12.4 and 13.9 times that of Pt/C. When we assembled PdCuH metallene/C as an electrode material for DFFC, the peak power and limiting current density of PdCuH metallene/C || PdCuH metallene/C were 79.5% and 159.7% higher than that of Pt/C || Pd/C, respectively. This study provides a new resolution to address the CO poisoning deactivation of direct formate fuel cell catalysts.