Poly(vinyl alcohol) and Chitosan-based Chemical Hydrogel Electrode Binders for Direct Borohydride Fuel Cells and Supercapacitors

摘要

Novel, cost-effective, high-performance, and environment-friendly electrode binders, comprising of polyvinyl alcohol chemical hydrogel and chitosan chemical hydrogel, are reported for direct borohydride fuel cells and supercapacitors. PCH and CCH binders-based electrodes have been fabricated using a novel, cost-effective, time-effective, and environmentally benign technique. The CCH binder exhibited better performance than Nafion? binder whereas the PCH binder exhibited comparable performance to Nafion? in DBFCs operating at elevated temperatures. The better performance of CCH binder at higher operating cell temperatures has been ascribed to its hydrophilic nature. DBFCs employing CCH binder-based electrodes and Nafion?-117 membrane as an electrolyte -cum-separator exhibited a maximum peak power density of about 589 mWcm~(-2) at 70 °C. CCH has been successfully tested as an electrode binder in all solid-state electrical double layer capacitors.