Stand-alone micro direct borohydride fuel cells using mixture of sodium borohydride and potassium hydroxide

초록

This paper presents a simple and low-cost micro direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) using a mixture of a fuel (sodium borohydride, NaBH4) and a liquid electrolyte (potassium hydroxide, KOH) in order to improve three-phase contact in micro fuel cells. It consists of an anode, cathode, and a fuel chamber for the liquid mixture of the fuel and the electrolyte. For anode catalysts, gold (Au) was sputtered on a Pyrex (R) glass, and manganese dioxide supported on carbon (MnO2/C) was coated on nickel foam for cathode catalysts. The NaBH4 and 1 M KOH were used as the hydrogen source and electrolyte respectively. The DBFC has a simple configuration without auxiliary devices and is cost effective because a platinum catalyst and ion exchange membranes were not used. The size of the DBFC was 20 x 14 x 5 mm(3), and the active area was 10 x 10 mm(2). The DBFC showed a maximum power of 1.18 mW at 0.29 V, and three serially connected cells illuminated two LEDs for one hour without refueling and any auxiliary devices.

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