The performance of an alkaline fuel cell is investigated using three different fuels, e g., methanol, ethanol and sodium borohydride. Pt/C/Ni was used as anode whereas Mn/C/Ni was used as standard (Electro-Chem-Technic, UK) cathode for all the fuels. Thus, the alkaline fuel cell is used for multi-fuel system. Fresh mixture of electrolyte, potassium hydroxide (5M), and fuel (2M) was fed to and w...

The possibility of substituting Pt/C with the hydrogen storage alloy MlNi3.6Co0.85Al0.3Mn0.3 as the anode active material of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system has been analyzed. The electrochemical properties indicate that a much more electrochemically active anode is obtained by impregnating the active material loaded anode in a Nafion proton conducting polymer. Such performance impr...

Reduction in size and weight of micro-electronic devices becomes limited by the availability of suitable power sources. This paper presents micro-fabrication routes of an aluminum anode/oxygenated alkaline electrolyte/platinum cathode micro cell as a first step towards the development of highly efficient thin form factor aluminum anode cells. On-demand microfluidic addition of electrolyte can o...

A three-dimensional porous architecture makes an attractive electrode structure, as it has an intrinsic structural integrity and an ability to buffer stress in lithium-ion batteries caused by the large volume changes in high-capacity anode materials during cycling. Here we report the first demonstration of a SnO2-coated macroporous Cu foam anode by employing a facile and scalable combination of...

Fabrication of microporous structures for the anode of a thin film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC(s)) using controlled etching process has led us to increased power density and increased cell robustness. Micropores were etched in the nickel anode by both wet and electrochemical etching processes. The samples etched electrochemically showed incomplete etching of the nickel leaving linked nickel isl...

The gate-controlled diode (or gated diode) is a semiconductor device that combines the function of a p-n junction and a MOS capacitor [1, 2]. The schematic cross-section structure is shown in figure 1. The terminals of the junction are noted A (anode) and K (cathode), while the control electrode is the gate G. The voltage across the p-n junction working in avalanche breakdown regime has the abs...

This paper reviews recent work on SOFC anode fabrication at the University of Pennsylvania. In this work, anode fabrication is based on the preparation of a porous YSZ matrix, into which electronic and catalytic components are added by impregnation of the appropriate metal salts. First, the methods used to prepare porous YSZ are described, along with a description of the structures that are obt...

Lithium metal is one of the most attractive anode materials for electrochemical energy storage. However, the growth of Li dendrites during electrochemical deposition, which leads to a low Coulombic efficiency and safety concerns, has long hindered the application of rechargeable Li-metal batteries. Here we show that a 3D current collector with a submicron skeleton and high electroactive surface...

The permeability or crossover characteristics of a typical perfluorosulfonic acid base type membrane are used for the temporal and spatial estimations of nitrogen concentration along the anode channels of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack. The predicted nitrogen accumulation is then used to estimate the impact of local fuel starvation on stack voltage through the notion of apparent...

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are an environmentally friendly method for water purification and self-sustained electricity generation using microorganisms. Microsized MFCs can also be a useful power source for lab-on-a-chip and similar integrated devices. We fabricated a 1.25 μL microsized MFC containing an anode of vertically aligned, forest type multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with a nick...