A high-performance hybrid direct carbon fuel cell with tandem catalysis in the dendritic channeled anode

Hybrid direct carbon fuel cells (HDCFCs) are promising to achieve high power density, good fuel-electrode contact, and high carbon-fuel conversion efficiency due to increased reaction sites and hybrid routines of carbon utilization. However, the performance of HDCFC is greatly restricted by mass transfer and detrimental carbon deposition . The so-called CO–CO 2 shuttle process, i. e., the coupling of the electrochemical reaction of CO to CO 2 and subsequent discharge of CO 2 towards the C fuel surface for gasification, is the key mass transfer process needed to be optimized. This study demonstrates a novel high-performance HDCFCs anode by integrating C-gasification tandem catalysis in dendritic channel anode support ( t -HDCFCs), which greatly enhances the CO–CO 2 shuttle and mitigates carbon deposition. As a result, the t -HDCFC delivers a comparable or even higher electrochemical performance than the other HDCFCs under the same operation conditions, such as a peak power density of 556 mW cm −2 at 750 °C.