title: Microfluidic hydrogen fuel cell with a liquid electrolyte.
abstract: We report the design and characterization of a microfluidic hydrogen fuel cell with a flowing sulfuric acid solution instead of a Nafion membrane as the electrolyte. We studied the effect of cell resistance, hydrogen and oxygen flow rates, and electrolyte flow rate on fuel cell performance to obtain a maximum power density of 191 mW/cm2. This flowing electrolyte design avoids water management issues, including cathode flooding and anode dry out. Placing a reference electrode in the outlet stream allows for independent analysis of the polarization losses on the anode and the cathode, thereby creating an elegant catalyst characterization and optimization tool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Ranga S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Jayashree
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Dilip
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Natarajan
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Markoski
authors.forename: Paul J A
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Kenis