Microfluidic fuel cells (MFCs), invented in 2002, utilize co-laminar flow to maintain separation between fuel and oxidant streams in place of a polymer membrane. However, parasitic energy losses due to the requirement of continuous flow present significant challenges to the implementation of such fuel cells.<br/>Recently, Esquivel, et al, demonstrated the first MFC on <i>paper</i> using methanol as fuel and air as oxidant. Such a paper MFC takes advantage of the capillary action of paper to induce and maintain laminar flow without any requirement of external pumping.<br/>Our paper MFC device produced a maximum power density of 2 mW/mg Pd with 30% hydrogen peroxide, and 1 mW/mg Pd with 3% hydrogen peroxide; in both cases 5 M potassium formate was used as the fuel. A maximum power density of 2.5 mW/mg Pd was achieved with 10 M potassium formate.

Paper microfluidic formate fuel cell

251st National Meeting (2016)

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