Sodium Percarbonate Based, Mixed‐Media Fuel Cells Supported on Paper with Gold/Nickel Oxide Catalysts

Abstract

Self‐pumping T‐shaped mixed‐media paper‐based fuel cells are prepared for the first time by using sodium percarbonate as the fuel, KMnO4 as the oxidant, and a proton‐conducting gel as the electrolyte. Whatman filter papers serve as porous supports for the fluid (catholyte and anolyte) streams. The cell architecture with the Au/NiO (with 11 wt % Au) composite as the catalyst deposited at both electrodes delivers high current and power densities of 5.6 mA cm−2 and 2.6 mW cm−2, respectively. With this catalyst, the maximum current and power densities are enhanced by 75 and 121 %, respectively, as compared to the case without catalyst. Impedance analysis shows that ohmic and polarization resistances can be reduced significantly by use of the Au/NiO (with 11 wt % Au) composite as the catalyst. The ability of this cell to revive and restore its original performance once both the open‐circuit voltage and current density have decayed clearly demonstrates the applicability of this robust, easily disposable cell for powering micro‐/nanodevices.

Methanol-Based Fuel Cell on Paper Support with N-Doped Graphene Oxide/Nickel Cobaltite Composite Catalyst

“…KMnO 4 is a much stronger oxidizing agent than air, and our previous studies on other redox couples having KMnO 4 as oxidant does not show the presence of significant activation losses. 8,33,34 Therefore, it must be inferred that the activation losses are due to the slow oxidation kinetics of CH 3 OH and not because of the inability of NiCo 2 O 4 or N-rGO to catalyze the KMnO 4 reduction reactions. Since both NiCo 2 O 3 and N-rGO improve the cell performance when present at the anode and on both the electrodes, the cell performance is further studied by using a composite of NiCo 2 O 4 and N-rGO (referred as NCo@N-rGO).…”