The affects of membrane on the cell performance when using alkaline borohydride-hydrazine solutions as the fuel

摘要

The cell performance and the polarization behavior of the fuel cell using alkaline NaBH_4-N_2H_4 solutions as the fuel were investigated. It was found that the use of different membrane: anion exchange membrane (AEM) or cation exchange membrane (CEM) would influence the cell performance and cathode polarization behavior. The direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) using CEM gave a higher power density than that using AEM, but the direct hydrazine fuel cell (DHFC) using CEM gave a lower power density compared with the DHFC using AEM. In the DBFCs using CEM, N_2H_4 addition in alkaline NaBH_4 solution improved the cell performance but it did not make any difference when adding more N_2H_4. On the other hand, in the DBFCs using AEM, cell performance was improved with increasing the amount of N_2H_4 in the anolyte.