Advances in Microfluidic Technologies for Energy Storage and Release Systems

Abstract

While the majority of the technologies developed for energy storage are macrosized, the reactions involved in energy storage, such as diffusion, ionic transport, and surface‐based reactions, occur on the microscale. In light of this, microfluidics with the ability to manipulate such reactions and fluids on the micrometer scale has emerged as an interesting platform for the development of energy storage systems. Herein, the advances in utilizing microfluidic technologies in energy storage and release systems are reviewed in terms of four aspects. First, miniaturized microfluidic devices to store various forms of energy such as electrochemical, biochemical, and solar energy with unique architectures and enhanced performances are discussed. Second, novel energy materials with the desired geometries and characteristics that can be fabricated via microfluidic techniques are reviewed. Third, applications enabled by such microfluidic energy storage and release systems, particularly focusing on medical, environmental, and modeling purposes, are presented. Lastly, some remaining problems and challenges and possible future works in this field are suggested.

Engineering 3D-printed carbon structures with atomic layer deposition coatings as photoelectrocatalysts for water splitting

“…68 In other words, the scalability is achieved with the continuous repetition of a base unit to form arrays as a large unit. This approach has been demonstrated by many applications, 69 for example, photovoltaic cells, solar steam generation for CO 2 reduction, 70 fluidic batteries, 71 and aluminum–air micro-batteries. 72 These works show that combining small base units to form a large unit retains the advantages such as a large surface-to-volume ratio, enhanced heat and mass transfer, and precise fluid control, all of which are fundamental aspects for solar and electrochemical applications.…”

Magnetic micro‐fluidics in 3D microchannel at the micro‐scale: Unlocking nano‐porous electrode potential for lithium‐ion micro‐batteries

“…This strategy is generally utilized for both in diagnostic applications and research. [6][7][8][9][10][11] In the field of fluid dynamics and heat transfer, the Eyring-Powell model offers a unified explanation regarding flow properties exhibited by non-Newtonian materials, hence differing in a big way from their corresponding Newtonian counterparts. The Eyring-Powell model explains the amount of force needed to break some bonds between two atoms in a solution-to move them around as well as their speed starting from the moment when bond rupture occurs.…”