Research Progress of Transition Metal Anode Catalysts for Direct Borohydride Fuel Cells

Direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) has been widely used in portable and mobile power supply because of its advantages of high theoretical cell voltage, considerable specific capacity and green environmental friendliness. Anode catalyst is the key material to improve DBFC performance and fuel efficiency. In the past, noble metals have been used as anode catalysts for DBFC batteries, but the high cost and limited resources of noble metals have limited the further development of the DBFC. At present, transition metal catalysts have received increasing attention due to their low cost and catalytic activity comparable to that of noble metals. On the basis of elucidating the working principle of DBFC, the research achievements of transition metal catalysts for DBFC in the past 20 years are reviewed in this paper. Through a large number of literature studies, it is found that the research results related to Ni-based, Co-based and their composite transition metal catalysts are the most abundant. It is also found that transition metal catalysts with nanometer size and loose structure show good catalytic activity. Therefore, Ni-based, Co-based and their composite transition metal catalysts were reviewed in detail. We believe that with the deepening of research, the proportion of transition metals in DBFC anode catalysts is increasing, which has a broader research space and application prospect.