High performance of the flow-type one-compartment hydrogen peroxide fuel cell using buckypaper and narrow fuel pathway under physiological conditions

Abstract

Flow-type membraneless hydrogen peroxide fuel cell (HPFC) having high power density is fabricated using buckypaper (BP) based electrodes and eddy-inducing cell structure to use low concentrated H₂O₂ fuel. Benefiting from the interstitial pore feature of the BP electrodes and catalytic structure, the suggested cathode and anode reached current densities of 1.18 and 3.088 mA cm⁻², which is 9.4 and 9.3 times those of conventionally fabricated electrodes, respectively. In the case of the performance of HPFC, flow-type HPFC shows 0.311 V open circuit voltage (OCV) and 232.02 μW cm⁻² of maximum power density (MPD) even with low H₂O₂ concentration (10 mM, 2.34 × 10⁻⁴ vol%), when the porous separator and narrow pathway (0.4 mm inner distance) are applied. Moreover, the MPD of the separator unused HPFC drops to 43% of the separator used, demonstrating that eddy attributed by the narrow and turbulent flow increase the mass transfer of substances between both electrode pairs. Considering the inner volume of the suggested fuel cell, 2.32 kW m⁻³ can be generated in municipal stationary use with solar-driven H₂O₂ fuel or cascade reaction-based implantable biodevices.