Abstract
A direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) employing a poly (vinyl alcohol) hydrogel membrane electrolyte (PHME) is reported. The DBFC employs an AB5 Misch metal alloy as anode and a goldplated stainless steel mesh as cathode in conjunction with aqueous alkaline solution of sodium borohydride as fuel and aqueous acidified solution of hydrogen peroxide as oxidant. Room temperature performances of the PHME-based DBFC in respect of peak power outputs; ex-situ cross-over of oxidant, fuel, anolyte and catholyte across the membrane electrolytes; utilization efficiencies of fuel and oxidant, as also cell performance durability are compared with a similar DBFC employing a Nafion®-117 membrane electrolyte (NME). Peak power densities of ∼30 and ∼40 mW cm−2 are observed for the DBFCs with PHME and NME, respectively. The crossover of NaBH4 across both the membranes has been found to be very low. The utilization efficiencies of NaBH4 and H2O2 are found to be ∼24 and ∼59%, respectively for the PHME-based DBFC; ∼18 and ∼62%, respectively for the NME-based DBFC. The PHME and NME-based DBFCs exhibit operational cell potentials of ∼1·2 and ∼1·4 V, respectively at a load current density of 10 mA cm−2 for ∼100 h.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Larminie J and Dicks A 2000 Fuel cell systems explained (New York: Wiley)
Isono T, Suzuki S, Kaneko M, Akiyama Y, Miyake Y and Yonezu I 2000 J. Power Sources 86 269
Igarashi H, Fujino T and Watanabe M 1995 J. Electroanal. Chem. 391 119
Prakash G K S, Smart M C, Wang Q.-J, Atti A, Pleynet V, Yang B, McGrath K, Olah G A, Narayanan S R, Chun W, Valdez T and Surampudi S 2004 J. Fluorine Chem. 125 1217
Aricò A S, Srinivasan S and Antonucci V 2001 Fuel Cells 1 1
Shukla A K, Jackson C L, Scott K and Raman R K 2002 Electrochim. Acta 47 3401
Shukla A K, Jackson C L and Scott K 2003 Bull. Mater. Sci. 26 207
Shukla A K, Raman R K, Choudhury N A, Priolkar K R, Sarode P R, Emura S and Kumashiro R 2004 J. Electroanal. Chem. 563 181
Indig M E and Snyder R N 1962 J. Electrochem. Soc. 109 1104
Jung M and Kroeger H H 1970 US Patent 3,511,710
Lee J.-Y 1997 US Patent 5,599,640
Amendola S C 1998 US Patent 5,804,329
Amendola S C, Onnerud P, Kelly M, Petillo P, Sharp-Goldman S and Binder M 1999 J. Power Sources 84 130
Suda S 2002 US Patent 6,358,488
Li Z P, Liu B H, Arai K and Suda S 2003 J. Electrochem Soc. 150 A868.
Li Z P, Liu BH, Arai K, Asaba K and Suda S 2004 J. Power Sources 126 28
Fakioğlu E, Yürüm Y and Veziroğlu T N 2004 Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 29 1371
Suda S 2003 In Handbook of fuel cells: Fundamentals, technology and applications (eds) W Vielstich, H A Gasteiger and A Lamm Fuel Cell Technology and Applications (Wiley) vol 3, p 115–120
Leon C P D, Walsh F C, Pletcher D, Browning D J and Lakeman J B 2006 J. Power Sources 155 172
Choudhury N A, Raman R K, Sampath S and Shukla A K 2005 J. Power Sources 143 1
Raman R K, Choudhury N A and Shukla A K 2004 Electrochem. and Solid-State Lett. 7 A488
Raman R K and Shukla A K 2007 Fuel Cells 7 225
Raman R K, Prashant S K and Shukla A K 2006 J. Power Sources 162 1073
Lewandowski A, Skorapaka K and Malinska J 2000 Solid State Ionics 133 265
Vargas R A, Zapata V H, Matallana E and Vargas M A 2001 Electrochim. Acta 46 1699
Rhim J W, Hwang H S, Kim D S, Park H B, Lee C H, Lee Y M, Moon G Y and Nam S Y 2005 Macromol. Res. 13 135
Kang M S, Kim J H, Won J, Moon S H and Kang Y S 2005 J. Membr. Sci. 247 127
Araujo A M, Neves M T, Azevedo W M, Oliveira G G, Ferreira D L, Coelho R A L, Figueiredo E A P and Carvalho L B 1997 Biotechnology Tech. 11 67
Qiao J, Hamaya T and Okada T 2005 J. Mater. Chem. 15 4414
Kim S Y, Shin H S, Lee Y M and Jeong C N 1999 J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 73 1675
Choudhury N A, Shukla A K, Sampath S and Pitchumani S 2006 J. Electrochem. Soc. 153 A614
Dasenbrock C O, Ridgway T H, Seliskar C J and Heineman W R 1998 Electrochim. Acta 43 3497
Kumar V G, Shaju K M, Munichandraiah N and Shukla A K 1998 J. Power Sources 76 106
Shukla A K, Venugopalan S and Hariprakash B 2001 J. Power Sources 100 125
Tliha M, Mathlouthi H, Lamloumi J and Percheron-Guegan A 2007 J. Alloys Compounds 436 221
Srivastava S and Srivastava O N 1998 J. Alloys Compounds 267 240
Li R, Wu J-M and Wang X-I 2000 J. Alloys Compounds 311 40
Wang L, Ma C, Sun Y and Suda S 2005 J. Power Sources 391 318
Jeffery G H, Bassett J, Mendham J and Denney R C 1989 Vogel’s textbook of quantitative chemical analysis (Fifth edition)
Liu B H, Li Z P, Zhu J K and Suda S 2008 J. Power Sources 183 151
Sahu A K, Selvarani G, Pitchumani S, Sridhar P, Shukla A K, Narayanan N, Banerjee A and Chandrakumar N 2008 J. Electrochem Soc. 155 B686S
Puri B R, Sharma L R and Pathania M S 1996 Principles of physical chemistry (Shoban Lal Nagin Chand and Co., Educational Publishers: India)
Stenina I A, Sistat Ph, Rebrov A I, Pourcelly G and Yaroslavtsev A B 2004, Desalination 170 49
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Dedicated to the memory of the late Professor S K Rangarajan
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Choudhury, N.A., Prashant, S.K., Pitchumani, S. et al. Poly (vinyl alcohol) hydrogel membrane as electrolyte for direct borohydride fuel cells. J Chem Sci 121, 647–654 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12039-009-0078-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12039-009-0078-8