Performance improvement of micro-fuel cell by manipulating the charged diffuse layer

A fuel cell device is presented based on a counter-flow microfluidic fuel cell (CFMFC) with nano-porous electrodes by developing an advection flux of ions within the electric double layer (EDL). Typically, in a microfluidic fuel cell, advection in the EDL is negligible because the near wall electrol...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2012-09, Vol.101 (11)
Main Authors: Sprague, Isaac B., Dutta, Prashanta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advection
Charging
Density
Fuel cells
Mathematical models
Microfluidics
Nanomaterials
Nanostructure
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A fuel cell device is presented based on a counter-flow microfluidic fuel cell (CFMFC) with nano-porous electrodes by developing an advection flux of ions within the electric double layer (EDL). Typically, in a microfluidic fuel cell, advection in the EDL is negligible because the near wall electrolyte velocity is zero. However, by using nano-pores, a non-negligible ion flux due to advection can be developed in the charged regions of the EDL which affects the structure of the EDL. In this article, we use a mathematical model to study how advection in the EDL affects the kinetic performance of fuel cells. Our model predicts that the peak power density can be increased by more than 2 fold in a CFMFC using this approach to kinetic enhancement.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4752459