Sequential flow membraneless microfluidic fuel cell with porous electrodes

Salloum, Kamil S.; Hayes, J. R.; Friesen, Cody; Posner, Jonathan D.

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2007.12.116

Cited by 85 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Miniaturization efforts have primarily aimed at scaling down common PEM fuel cell architectures [4], however such systems retain challenges found in their full scale counterparts, such as membrane degradation [5], water management [6], fuel crossover [7], and required humidification of the reactant streams [8]. More recently, microfluidic fuel cells have been developed that leverage laminar liquid flow of the reactants as a substitute for a solid polymer membrane [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Liquid electrolyte based reactants typically have greater energy densities and are safer to use, store, and handle [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, unreacted fuel and oxidant at the interface will mix by diffusion, resulting in depletion of the overall reactant availability, or mixed potential if either reactant reaches its counter-electrode. Membraneless fuel cells have been demonstrated with vanadium [2,21,22,24], formic acid [13,27], hydrogen saturated electrolytes [15,16,28], gaseous electrolytes [18,25], peroxide [19], and have been tested in both basic and acidic media [9,10,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Counter flow membraneless microfluidic fuel cell

Salloum

Posner

2010

Journal of Power Sources

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Counter flow membraneless microfluidic fuel cell

Salloum

Posner

2010

Journal of Power Sources

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“…The presence of (111), (200), (220), (311), (222), (331), and (420) crystallographic planes indicates that Pd nanocubes exhibited the face-centred cubic structure; these peaks were located at 40. 21 nanoparticles on the porous, three-dimensional carbon paper electrodes was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and is shown in Figure 2a and 2b at different magnifications. At low magnification ( Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct Formic Acid Microfluidic Fuel Cell with Pd Nanocubes Supported on Flow-Through Microporous Electrodes

Arjona

Goulet

Guerra‒Balcázar

et al. 2015

ECS Electrochemistry Letters

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A formic acid and dissolved oxygen microfluidic fuel cell demonstrated superior performance to air-breathing cells by a unique, hierarchical combination of optimized electrocatalyst particle geometry based on Pd nanocubes enclosed in {100} crystallographic planes and flow-through microporous electrodes with high surface area. The high performance is attributed to the favorable size and shape of the catalyst, the high surface-to-volume ratio, and the high localized mass transport rates inside the flow-through microporous electrodes. These results open up the opportunity to utilize oxygen as oxidant in miniaturized electrochemical cells without the constraints imposed by integration of air-breathing cathodes exposed to surrounding air. Microfluidic fuel cells (MFCs) are designed to eliminate the membrane used in conventional cells by employing microscale co-laminar flow at low Reynolds numbers.1-3 However, direct formic acid MFCs as well as other MFCs which use organic molecules as fuel and oxygen as oxidant usually show low performance due to a combination of voltage losses associated with electrochemical kinetics and mass transport to the active sites.2 Strategies for increasing cell performance generally address these two issues. In the first case, these cells are often limited by the availability of oxygen. Dissolved oxygen has low diffusivity (2 × 10 −5 cm 2 s −1 ) which limits the mass transfer and results in low cell performance. 4 The oxygen concentration in air is higher (10 mM) than in solution (2-4 mM) and the diffusivity is ten thousand times higher.2 Thus, some research groups have opted to fabricate air-breathing microfluidic fuel cells. 2,[5][6][7] Other groups have instead used high surface area materials such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) or three-dimensional electrodes to enhance the mass transfer in the anode and cathode streams. [8][9][10][11] In the latter case, researchers have attempted to improve the electrocatalytic properties of their electrode materials in regards to activity, stability, and/or selectivity. 12 The activity can be improved by means of decreasing the particle size, using particles with unique geometries which can be enclosed to the {111}, {100} or {110} crystallographic planes, and/or increasing the surface area. 13 The present work aims to create an optimized hierarchical electrode design specifically for liquid based microfluidic electrochemical cells, demonstrated here for a direct formic acid and dissolved oxygen fuel cell. We use small, customized Pd and Pt nanoparticles supported on three-dimensional microporous electrodes operated in flow-through mode. The proposed electrode is uniquely configured for optimum performance by a synergetic combination of four simultaneous strategies: i) catalyst particle size; ii) catalyst particle shape; iii) electrode active surface area; and iv) flow-through porous electrode matrix. ExperimentalThe synthesis of Pd nanocubes was performed using polyvinylpyrrolidone as a surfactant, ascorbic acid as a reducing * Electroche...

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“…Also, to minimize parasitic losses due to diffusive crossover of reactants, the length of channels must be limited, creating challenges for fuel utilization. Previously we reported the development of a radial laminar membraneless fuel cell which addressed these issues [14]. This present work moves the membraneless fuel cell beyond the laminar regime and improves both the power density and fuel utilization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%