Direct liquid fuel cells with high energy density and facile fuel storage have received increasing attention. Owing to the poor reactivity of conventional liquid fuels, they not only require noble metal catalysts for their oxidation but also exhibit limited performance. Here, we report a power-generation system, the direct liquid e-fuel cell, where “e-fuel” stands for “electrically rechargeable fuel.” This e-fuel cell consists of a catalyst-free graphite-felt anode and a conventional oxygen cathode separated by a proton exchange membrane, producing a maximum current density of 750 mA cm⁻², a peak power density of 293 mW cm⁻², and an energy efficiency of 42.3% at room temperature, which is much higher than the performances achieved by conventional direct liquid fuel cells. This emerging technology, capable of fast recharging, could be a powerful, efficient, cost-effective, and durable power-generation device, showing great potential for commercialization in the fuel cell electric vehicle industry.

具有高能量密度和容易的燃料存储的直接液体燃料电池受到越来越多的关注。由于常规液体燃料的反应性差，它们不仅需要贵金属催化剂进行氧化而且还表现出有限的性能。在这里，我们报告了一种发电系统，即直接液体电子燃料电池，其中“电子燃料”代表“可充电燃料”。该电子燃料电池由无催化剂的石墨毡阳极和由质子交换膜隔开的常规氧阴极组成，产生的最大电流密度为750 mA cm ^-2，峰值功率密度为293 mW cm ^-2。，在室温下的能源效率为42.3％，远高于传统直接液体燃料电池的性能。这项能够快速充电的新兴技术可以成为一种功能强大，高效，具有成本效益的耐用发电设备，在燃料电池电动汽车行业中显示出巨大的商业化潜力。