title: A biohydrogen fuel cell using a conductive polymer nanocomposite based anode.
abstract: This paper introduces a newly designed biohydrogen fuel cell by integrating a bioreactor for hydrogen production with the anode chamber in a hydrogen fuel cell. Two different composites of platinum nanoparticles decorated on functionalised multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Pt/fMWCNTs) and polyaniline (PANI) were fabricated using the electrochemical polymerisation method and used as anodes. The biohydrogen fuel cell using a thin film of PANI nanofibres deposited on Pt/fMWCNTs/carbon paper as the anode showed much higher power density than the cell using a core-shell structure PANI/Pt/fMWCNTs and Pt/fMWCNTs without PANI based anodes. The structural differences between these two composites and their effects on the interaction with hydrogen gas inside the anode chamber leading to the difference in power density of the fuel cell were also discussed. The maximum power density was 613.5 mW m(-2), which was obtained at a current density of about 2.55 A m(-2) with a cell voltage of 0.24 V using 20 mL single-chamber air-cathode, compact biohydrogen fuel cell.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Le Quynh
authors.initials: le Q
authors.lastname: Hoa
authors.forename: Yasuhito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugano
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
authors.forename: Masato
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Eiichi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tamiya
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000382:microbiology*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000502:physiology*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D006859:Hydrogen