Flexible paper-based borohydride-vanadium fuel cell for powering micro-nanosystems

Abstract

This work deals about the development of paper-based fuel cells with high open-circuit voltages for application in powering the micro-nanosystems such as bio-sensors. The developed fuel cell employs Whatman paper as the ion conductor placed between the anode and the cathode to replace expensive ion-conducting membranes such as Nafion. A maximum open-circuit voltage of ∼2.1 V per single cell and a power output of ∼4.5 mW cm−2 at ∼6 mA cm−2 are obtained when employing 1 M NaBH4 in 20 wt% NaOH solution and 1 M VO2 + in 2.5 M H2SO4 solution. Chronoamperometric measurement performed at 1 V indicates that the output power density varies from 6 to 1 mW cm−2 in about 100 min. The power delivered at the end of even 100 min is comparable to that of the peak power delivered by many of the micro-fuel cell systems reported in the literature.