I-Corps: Thin Flexible Fuel Cell

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于用基于薄型柔性燃料电池(TFFC)的替代技术取代了许多电池应用。最初的目标市场包括许多对长寿命、紧凑性和高性能具有重要意义的应用。基于目前电池填充的便携式存储需求，一项将两次充电寿命提高十倍的技术将影响包括智能手机、平板电脑、测试设备、医疗仪器和小型自动驾驶汽车在内的多种应用。其结果将是赋予受影响的各种系统更大的灵活性和多功能性，以及对其用户更大的实用性和好处。这个i-Corps项目利用了氢燃料电池技术的最新发现，即薄型柔性燃料电池(TFFC)。TFFC的结构部件完全是由软材料建造的，而不是硬质和密度更高的金属、塑料或复合材料。其结果是，该设备超薄(1毫米)，片状，并可以弯曲成几乎任何形状。它还非常轻，在紧凑型吸气式燃料电池的质量或体积基础上具有最高的功率密度。燃料电池是通过研究利用纳米压印光刻实现低成本的二维器件制造而被发现的。该装置的功率密度(W/kg)是市面上最先进的超轻型紧凑型燃料电池的五倍。此外，TFFC在氧气供应和热管理方面完全是被动的，不需要额外的子系统来实现这些功能。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in the displacement of many battery applications with an alternative technology based on a Thin Flexible Fuel Cell (TFFC). Initial target markets include the many applications in which long-life, compactness and high performance are important. Based on the needs for portable storage filled by batteries at present, a technology that increases lifetimes between charging by ten times will impact multiple applications including smartphones, tablets, test equipment, medical instruments, and small autonomous vehicles. The result will be greater flexibility and versatility imparted to the various systems impacted, and greater utility and benefit to their users.This I-Corps project leverages a recent discovery in hydrogen fuel cell technology, the Thin Flexible Fuel Cell (TFFC). The structural components of the TFFC are constructed completely from soft materials, rather than rigid and more dense metals, plastics or composites. The result is that the device is ultra-thin ( 1 mm), sheet-like, and may be bent into almost any arbitrary shape. It is also extremely light and has among the highest recorded power densities on a mass or volume basis for compact, air-breathing, fuel cells. The fuel cell was discovered through research on the implementation of low-cost two-dimensional device fabrication involving nano-imprint lithography. The device was found to have five times the power density (W/kg) of state-of-the-art commercially available ultra-light, compact fuel cells. Moreover, the TFFC is completely passive with respect to oxygen supply and thermal management, needing no extra sub-systems for these functions.