Direct formic acid microfluidic fuel cell design and performance evolution

Abstract This work reports the evolution of design, fabrication and testing of direct formic acid microfluidic fuel cells (DFAμFFC), the architecture and channel dimensions are miniaturized from a thousand to few cents of micrometers. Three generations of DFAμFFCs are presented, from the initial Y-shape configuration made by a hot pressing technique; evolving into a novel miniaturized fuel cell based on microfabrication technology using SU-8 photoresist as core material; to the last air-breathing μFFC with enhanced performance and built with low cost materials and processes. The three devices were evaluated in acidic media in the presence of formic acid as fuel and oxygen/air as oxidant. Commercial Pt/C (30 wt. % E-TEK) and Pd/C XC-72 (20 wt. %, E-TEK) were used as cathode and anode electrodes respectively. The air-breathing μFFC generation, delivered up to 27.3 mW cm −2 for at least 30 min, which is a competitive power density value at the lowest fuel flow of 200 μL min −1 reported to date.