Prospects of on-chip fuel cell performance: improvement based on numerical simulation
Prospects of on-chip fuel cell performance: improvement based on numerical simulation
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DOI：
10.1039/c0ee00179a
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发表时间：
2011
影响因子：
32.5
通讯作者：
Satoshi Tominaka;S. Ohta;T. Osaka;R. Alkire
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Satoshi Tominaka;S. Ohta;T. Osaka;R. Alkire
片上燃料电池是未来电子和微器件应用（包括片上传感器和微型飞行器）的有前途的电源。之前，我们报道了一种小规模（0.4mm宽和6mm长）的片上燃料电池，其具有空气呼吸、无膜和单片设计，其表现出片上燃料电池的最高功率，1.4 μW（J. Am.化学会，2008，130，10456）。为了提高性能，准确理解细胞中发生的现象是至关重要的。因此，本文的重点是理解细胞的运作，通过使用数值模拟，并在实施细胞的改进，根据模拟结果。初步定量研究的结论是，由于阴极淹没引起的氧气供应，片上燃料电池的性能受到限制。因此，我们实验性地将疏水离聚物（Nafion）添加到电池上以减少淹没的影响，并成功地将最大功率从2.0 μW提高到2.8 μW。该功率被认为足以用于微传感器应用。在额外的模拟结果的基础上，我们表明，通过将催化剂的有效表面积增加到与甲醇燃料电池相当的水平，性能可能会提高到100 μW以上。如果成功，这种性能增强将使片上燃料电池成为未来微型器件的可行候选者，并为燃料电池的开发工作指明了有希望的方向。
On-chip fuel cells are promising power sources for future electronics and microdevice applications including on-chip sensors and micro-air-vehicles. Previously, we reported a small scale (0.4 mm wide and 6 mm long) on-chip fuel cell of an air-breathing, membrane-less and monolithic design, which exhibited the highest power for an on-chip fuel cell, 1.4 μW (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008, 130, 10456). In order to improve the performance, precise understanding of the phenomena occurring in the cells is of primary importance. Thus, this paper focuses on understanding cell operation by using numerical simulation, and on implementing cell improvements based on the simulation results. The initial quantitative study concluded that the performance of the on-chip fuel cell was limited owing to oxygen-supply caused by cathode flooding. Thus, we experimentally added the hydrophobic ionomer (Nafion) onto the cell to reduce the influence of the flooding, and successfully increased the maximum power from 2.0 to 2.8 μW. This power is considered sufficient for microsensor application. On the basis of additional simulation results, we show that performance may potentially be improved to over 100 μW by increasing the effective surface areas of catalysts to a level comparable with methanol fuel cells. If successful, such performance enhancements would position the on-chip fuel cell as a viable candidate for future micro-devices, and point to promising directions for fuel cell development efforts.