Improving the direct borohydride fuel cell performance with thiourea as the additive in the sodium borohydride solution

In this study, the effects of the additive thiourea (TU) have been investigated under steady state/steady-flow and uniform state/uniform-flow systems with the aim of minimizing the anodic hydrogen evolution on Pd in order to increase the performance of a direct borohydride fuel cell. The fuel cell has consisted of Pd/C anode, Pt/C cathode and Na+ form Nafion membrane as the electrolyte. There has been a small improvement in peak power density and fuel utilization ratio by addition of TU (1.6 × 10−3 M) into the sodium borohydride solution; the peak power densities of 14.4 and 15.1 mW cm−2, and fuel utilization ratios of 21.6% and 23.2% have been obtained without and with TU, respectively.