Tuning Magnesium-Air Fuel Cell Performance and Corrosion Behavior through Electrode and Electrolyte Configuration

Abstract

Magnesium-air fuel cell (MAFC) is a hybrid system that combines the design of a fuel cell and a battery, requiring a constant replacement of anode and electrolyte to operate. MAFC application is limited for short-term high-power applications like emergency and portable power supplies because of severe corrosion problems impairing the performance of MAFC. Hence, this study focuses on performance by investigating the effect of electrolyte volume, electrodes position, and electrolyte concentration on performance of Mg–air fuel cell. Three sets of experiments were conducted starting with variation in volume of electrolyte. Then, it is applied in the cell configuration to test the MAFC performance with different electrode position. Lastly, the best electrode position is applied to the new modified MAFC together with the chosen electrolyte to investigate the effect of electrolyte concentration on MAFC performance. Finding shows that electrolyte volume not really significant to the performance while higher NaCl concentration can increase the performance of MAFC significantly. 10 wt% of NaCl produce the highest power density of 38.95 mW.cm⁻² and operating voltage of 1.67 V. Unfortunately, higher corrosion rate was observed in higher NaCl concentration. Finally, adding sodium phosphate act as corrosion inhibitor manage to suppress the corrosion reaction and lowers the corrosion rate.

Key findings

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Identifiers

DOI

10.17576/jkukm-2025-37(1)-18

Journal

Jurnal Kejuruteraan

Year

2025