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

The cell performance and the polarization behavior of the fuel cell using alkaline NaBH4–N2H4 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, N2H4 addition in alkaline NaBH4 solution improved the cell performance but it did not make any difference when adding more N2H4. On the other hand, in the DBFCs using AEM, cell performance was improved with increasing the amount of N2H4 in the anolyte.