Characterization of a Membraneless Microfluidic Hydrogen/Air Fuel Cell

This paper characterizes a membraneless microfluidic hydrogen/air fuel cell experimentally using a sulfuric solution as the electrolyte. The cell is constructed based on the design of Jayashree et al. [Langmuir 23 (2007), 6871]. However, in contrast to the hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell investigated in their work, here we use air to replace pure oxygen in the cathode stream and first pay attention to the effect of reaction temperature and electrolyte thickness on the cell performance. Moreover, how the cell performance changes with the flow rates of hydrogen, air, and electrolyte, and the influence of electrolyte concentration are also examined. The cell employs a straight microchannel while a serpentine microchannel design is also evaluated. The results show that such a membraneless microfuel cell may produce a maximum power density 160 mW/cm(2) at room temperature, indicating that it is worth studying further to improve the cell performance of this design for potential application in miniature power systems.