Recently, Nissan release the automobile solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC): vehicles which equipped with solid oxide fuel cells will use bio-ethanol rather than the liquid hydrogen. Produce ethanol reformer hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air in a fuel cell to produce electricity, then discharging water. According to the source, this system is more efficient than the existing hydrogen fuel cell system, which the recharge mileage can reach about 600 km. what kind of black tech is SOFC?SOFC is the third generation of the fuel cell, a solid-state chemical mean which direct converted efficiently and environmentally friendly the chemical energy which is stored in the fuel and oxidizer to electric energy at high temperature, a fuel cell which is considered to be widely applied as the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) in the future.

 

SOFC does not require expensive platinum as a catalyst with both the anode and cathode materials are oxides. WO₃ is a semiconductor-type transition metal oxide, to maintain stability in an acidic environment, also form catalytic effect together with the noble metal, as carrier it can partial substitute carbon to prepared composite catalyst which has been extensively studied. We guess that perhaps WO₃ catalysts can be used in SOFC. The work environment of fuel cells has the properties of high voltage, humidity and low pH values, thus requiring an electrode material has good corrosion resistance. Pt / WO₃ / C being the most studied of the fuel cell catalyst, the experimental results showed that the addition of WO₃ in the catalyst will bring the significant improvement of oxidation catalytic activity and electrochemical oxidation stability; the same time, most of the fuel cells take methanol, ethanol as the energy source and thus there is inevitable to generate amount of CO in the reaction process, while the addition of WO₃ in the catalyst of the CO stripping experiment found that Pt / WO₃ / C exhibited good CO oxidation, that is, it has good resistance CO poisoning ability.