A microfluidic fuel cell with flow-through porous electrodes

J Am Chem Soc. 2008 Mar 26;130(12):4000-6. doi: 10.1021/ja078248c. Epub 2008 Mar 4.

Abstract

A microfluidic fuel cell architecture incorporating flow-through porous electrodes is demonstrated. The design is based on cross-flow of aqueous vanadium redox species through the electrodes into an orthogonally arranged co-laminar exit channel, where the waste solutions provide ionic charge transfer in a membraneless configuration. This flow-through architecture enables improved utilization of the three-dimensional active area inside the porous electrodes and provides enhanced rates of convective/diffusive transport without increasing the parasitic loss required to drive the flow. Prototype fuel cells are fabricated by rapid prototyping with total material cost estimated at 2 USD/unit. Improved performance as compared to previous microfluidic fuel cells is demonstrated, including power densities at room temperature up to 131 mW cm-2. In addition, high overall energy conversion efficiency is obtained through a combination of relatively high levels of fuel utilization and cell voltage. When operated at 1 microL min-1 flow rate, the fuel cell produced 20 mW cm-2 at 0.8 V combined with an active fuel utilization of 94%. Finally, we demonstrate in situ fuel and oxidant regeneration by running the flow-through architecture fuel cell in reverse.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Electric Power Supplies
  • Electrodes
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / methods*
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Porosity
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Solutions / chemistry
  • Surface Properties
  • Vanadium / chemistry
  • Water / chemistry

Substances

  • Solutions
  • Vanadium
  • Water