Long-term room-temperature hydrazine/air fuel cells based on low-cost nanotextured CueNi catalysts Boris Filanovsky a,1 , Eran Granot a,1 , Igor Presman b , Iliya Kuras b , Fernando Patolsky a, * a School of Chemistry, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel b Nanergy, Ltd., Hertzeliya, Israel highlights  A novel nanotextured copperenickel anode/hydrazine fuel cell device was demonstrated.  The fuel cell device exhibits long-term stability for continuous operation, up to w2000 h.  The new fuel cell makes use of low-cost catalysts and exhibits high electrochemical performances.  This fuel cell is effectively operated at RT; higher temperatures up to 60  C improve its efficiency.  Design optimization is expected to improve its working life, as well as its electrochemical efficiency. article info Article history: Received 25 January 2013 Received in revised form 8 July 2013 Accepted 23 July 2013 Available online 2 August 2013 Keywords: Fuel cell Copper Nickel Anode Hydrazine Energy abstract We present here a long-term room-temperature (RT) direct-liquid hydrazine/air fuel cell device. This hydrazine/air fuel cell is based on low-cost easily-prepared nanotextured CueNi anodes as the hydrazine (Hz) catalyst, combined with a commercial anion-exchange membrane film and a commercial air cathode. In addition, our hydrazine/air fuel cell consists on an improved novel design that results in remarkably high mechanical and chemical stabilities for long periods of operation. This hydrazine/air fuel cell can operates continuously for about w2000 h (limited mainly by cathode and membrane deterio- ration) with continuous fuel supply, and supplies about 0.58 V at 1 A (14.3 mA cm 2 , with a discharge efficiency of about 70% (drift is less than 0.01% h 1 ), and appears to be suitable for mass production. The use of optimally-combined multi-metal electrodes suggests the possibility to create novel catalysts of improved electrochemical efficiency and stability. Our fuel cell devices can find broad applications in different civilian and military field mobile and stationary uses, for instance, in future fuel-cell operated vehicles and stationary back-up power electrical stations. Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Fuel cell devices (FC) enable the conversion of the chemical energy stored in a fuel into electrical energy, and are characterized by their high electrochemical energy densities, typically 2e 8 kWh kg 1 , ten times that of conventional batteries [1]. Many types of fuel cells have been developed over the last decades [1e 11]. Among them, low-temperature fuel cells, which operate at high energy density and high efficiency, are considered to be among the most suitable power sources for portable and stationary applications [5,9]. However, until today, due to numerous chal- lenging limitations, mainly related to the limited structural and functional cell stability for long-term periods of continuous oper- ation, there has been no mass deployment of fuel cells devices. During the last decade, intensive research efforts have been focused on hydrogen-rich fuels such as methanol [12e16], sodium borohydride [1,17e22], ammoniaeborane [23e28] and hydrazine [29e43]. Hydrazine is an attractive fuel candidate because of its low cost, abundance and relatively simple synthesis. The natural basic sources of hydrazine, nitrogen and hydrogen, are unlimited and there is no practical recycling limitation. In addition, the decom- position products of hydrazine, nitrogen and water, are ecologically friendly. Pure anhydrous hydrazine (N 2 H 4 ) is considered hazardous and toxic, while dilute hydrazine solutions are substantially less hazardous. Moreover, several hydrazine salt derivatives have been * Corresponding author. E-mail address: fernando@post.tau.ac.il (F. Patolsky). 1 These authors contributed equally. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Power Sources journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jpowsour 0378-7753/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.07.084 Journal of Power Sources 246 (2014) 423e429