Journal
NATURE ENERGY
Volume 4, Issue 4, Pages 281-289Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0330-5
Keywords
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Funding
- Office of Naval Research (ONR) [N00014-16-1-2833]
- McKelvery School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis
- Roma B. and Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished University Professorship
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The disparate pH requirements for borohydride oxidation and peroxide reduction in direct borohydride fuel cells (DBFCs) currently hinder their performance and efficiency. Here we develop a pH-gradient-enabled microscale bipolar interface (PMBI) that facilitates sharply different local pH environments at the anode and cathode of a DBFC. Using a recessed planar electrode in conjunction with transmission electron microscopy, we show that the PMBI maintained a sharp local pH gradient (0.82 pH units nm(-1) on average) at the electrocatalytic reaction site. The PMBI configuration enabled enhanced performance in a DBFC compared with either all-anion-or all-cation-exchange configurations (330 mA cm(-2) at 1.5 V and a peak power density of 630 mW cm(-2) at 1.0 V, respectively). The high power densities obtained at voltages well above 1.0 V-achieved by virtue of the effective separation of anolyte and catholyte locally at the electrocatalytically active sites by the PMBI-provide a pathway to reduce fuel cell stack size for autonomous propulsion applications.
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