title: Carbon nanotubes based methanol sensor for fuel cells application.
abstract: An electrochemical sensor is built using vertically grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) micro-array to detect methanol concentration in water. This study is done for the potential use of the array as methanol sensor for portable units of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles electro-deposited CNTs (Pt/CNTs) electrode shows high sensitivity in the measurement of methanol concentration in water with cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurement at room temperature. Further investigation has also been undertaken to measure the concentration by changing the amount of the mixture of methanol and formic acid in water. We compared the performance of our micro array sensor built with Pt/CNTs electrodes versus that of Pt wire electrode using CV measurement. We found that our Pt/CNTs array sensor shows high sensitivity and detects methanol concentrations in the range of 0.04 M to 0.10 M. In addition, we found that co-use of formic acid as electrolyte enables us to measure up to 1.0 M methanol concentration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Overzet
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kozlov
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Aliev
authors.forename: Y W
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D004566:Electrodes; D005561:Formates / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D000432:Methanol / Q000737:chemistry; D008839:Microelectrodes; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D010984:Platinum / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D005561:Formates; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; C030544:formic acid; D010984:Platinum; D000432:Methanol