A study on performance stability of the passive direct borohydride fuel cell

The performance stability of the direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) working under passive conditions was studied in this work. The stability within hours was found to be greatly affected by mass transport properties of different cell components. It was significantly improved by modifying electrode structures, increasing hydrophobicity of the cathode and using pretreated membranes. On the other hand, the stability of the DBFC cell for more than 100 h was determined by the durabilities of these cell components. The nickel anode and silver cathode were found to degrade after prolonged operations and thus the durabilities of these non-noble metal catalysts need to be improved.