Development of Advanced Hydrogen-Bromine Fuel Cells for Energy Storage

The hydrogen-bromine fuel cell has been shown to be a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage due to its fast kinetics, fully reversible electrodes and low chemical costs. However, today's conventional hydrogen-bromine fuel cells use very expensive membrane materials (such as Nafion®) and platinum catalysts that can be poisoned and corroded when exposed to HBr and Br₂.  An advanced H₂-Br₂ fuel cell is being developed with reduced cost and increased durability for energy storage. We have successfully developed new composite membranes with higher perm-selectivity at a fraction of the cost of Nafion membranes; new catalysts possessing excellent activity and durability in HBr/Br₂ environment and novel electrode/cell designs with superior cell performance. The advanced H₂-Br₂ fuel cell is high-power, high-efficiency with substantially increased durability and reduced cost. The latest progress in development will be discussed.

 Acknowledgements

 This work was funded by Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U. S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-AR0000262.

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