Abstract
The electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol on membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cell using platinum electrodes in alkaline-acidic media is investigated. In this cell, ethanol is used as the fuel and sodium percarbonate is used as an oxidant for the first time in an alkaline-acidic media. Sodium percarbonate generates hydrogen peroxide in aqueous medium. At room temperature, the laminar-flow-based microfluidic membraneless fuel cell can reach a maximum power density of 18.96 mW cm−2 with a fuel mixture flow rate of 0.3 mL min−2. The developed fuel cell features no proton exchange membrane. The simple planar structured membraneless ethanol fuel cell presents with high design flexibility and enables easy integration of the microscale fuel cell into actual microfluidic systems and portable power applications.
Highlights
The portable multifunctional electronic devices with highspeed operations need better energy storage and supply options that are capable of delivering increased power and energy density
A novel microfabrication method—fabrication inside capillaries using multistream laminar flow—is used to construct a new type of fuel cell, which eliminates several of the technical issues that crop up when using proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), such as fuel crossover [1], membrane degradation, a long startup time, ohmic losses, size, fabrication, and water management [2, 3] limited durability of catalysts [4]
The first step consisted in analyzing the flexibility and the performance implications of operating membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cell (MLSPCFC) in an alkaline-acidic media and the subsequent second step was intended to further improve the cell performance by characterising the main cell by changing several operational parameters, such as fuels compositions, oxidant compositions, electrolyte compositions, distance effect, and flow rate, and to observe their influence on the polarisation behaviour of the cell
Summary
The portable multifunctional electronic devices with highspeed operations need better energy storage and supply options that are capable of delivering increased power and energy density. The implications of flexibility and the performance of operating membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cell (MLSPCFC) in Advances in Physical Chemistry alkaline-acidic media, in which one electrode is alkaline and the other acidic, is the focus of this study. A few studies were carried out that attempted to use oxygen solution as the oxidant The performance of these microfuel cells was found to be severely hampered by the low transport efficiency of oxygen in the cathode stream. New forms of simplified architectures, unique from those that have been reported in the literature, have been developed by eliminating and integrating the key components of a conventional MEA With these advantages, we believe membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cells (MLSPCFC) can be used as an alternative for portable power applications
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