The Performance of a Direct Borohydride/Peroxide Fuel Cell Using Graphite Felts as Electrodes

摘要

A direct borohydride/peroxide fuel cell (DBPFC) generates electrical power by recirculating liquid anolyte and catholyte between the stack and reservoirs, which is similar to the operation of flow batteries. To enhance the accessibility of the catalyst layer to the liquid anolyte/catholyte, graphite felts are employed as the porous diffusion layer of a single-cell DBPFC instead of carbon paper/cloth. The effects of the type of anode alkaline solution and operating conditions, including flow rate and temperature of the anolyte/catholyte, on DBPFC performance are investigated and discussed. The durability of the DBPFC is also evaluated by galvanostatic discharge at 0.1 A?cm ?2 for over 50 h. The results of this preliminary study show that a DBPFC with porous graphite electrodes can provide a maximum power density of 0.24 W?cm ?2 at 0.8 V. The performance of the DBPFC drops slightly after 50 h of operation; however, the discharge capacity shows no significant decrease.