Abstract
This paper presents the continuous flow operation of membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cell (MLSPCFC) using acid/alkaline bipolar electrolyte. In the acid/alkaline bipolar electrolyte, percarbonate works both as an oxidant as well as reductant. Sodium percarbonate affords hydrogen peroxide in aqueous medium. The cell converts the energy released by H2O2 decomposition with H+ and OH− ions into electricity and produces water and oxygen. At room temperature, the laminar flow based microfluidic membraneless fuel cell can reach a maximum power density of 28 mW/cm2 with the molar ratio of [Percarbonate]/[NaOH] = 1 as fuel and [Percarbonate]/[H2SO4] = 2 as oxidant. The paper reports for the first time the use of sodium percarbonate as the oxidant and reductant. The developed fuel cell emits no CO2 and features no proton exchange membrane, inexpensive catalysts, and simple planar structure, which enables high design flexibility and easy integration of the microscale fuel cell into actual microfluidic systems and portable power applications.
Highlights
The advancement of portable power electronics and the continual integration of functionality into a single all encompassing device has created an increased demand on energy supply
The present analyses confirm the experimental results that this membraneless microfuel cell is cathodic limited and suggest that it is a crucial factor in improving cell performance to increase the concentration of oxidant in the cathodic stream
A microscale membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cell (MLSPCFC) was fabricated and its operating behaviour characterized for the first time
Summary
The advancement of portable power electronics and the continual integration of functionality into a single all encompassing device has created an increased demand on energy supply. The flexibility and the performance implications of operating MLSPCFCs under “dual-media,” that is, one electrode is acidic and the other one is alkaline condition, will be the focus of this study In this communication, first time we introduce sodium percarbonate (2Na2CO3 ⋅ 3H2O2) and demonstrate the performance of a membraneless sodium percarbonate fuel cell (MLSPCFC). A variety of fuels were used in these investigations such as formic acid, methanol, and hydrogen solutions Since they all used oxygen solution as the oxidant, the performance of these microfuel cells was found to be restricted severely by the low transport efficiency of oxygen in the cathode stream. The decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in anode and cathode streams can generate electric power which is comparable to a typical air-breathing DMFC at room temperature and produce no carbon dioxide emission and will be explored as the fuel with the membraneless fuel cell in this paper. A new branch of simplified architectures that is unique from those that have been reported in the literature has been developed by eliminating and integrating the key components of a conventional MEA
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