DIH SUMMER PROJECT

EVALUATION

ELECTROOXIDATION STUDY OF ACETIC ACID IN MEMBRANELESS

CELL
NAME:- PROJECT MENTOR:SHASHANK PARDHIKAR
DR. H.L. PRAMANIK
14045085
SOLANKE PAWANKUMAR
14045097

MICROFLUIDIC FUEL

BACKGROUND

Since energy is still mainly based on

fossil fuels, increasing energy demands
have led to their depletion and to
significant environment implications.
Fuel cells are useful tool to reduce
carbon emission.
Fuel cells are efficient, environment
friendly.

PRINCIPLE OF FUEL CELL

Fuel cells are galvanic cells in which

free energy of a chemical reaction is
converted into electrical energy.
rG= nFE(cell)
E(cell) = E(cathode) E(anode)

TYPES OF FUEL CELL

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell
Direct Alcohol Fuel Cell
Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell
Alkaline Fuel Cell
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell
Microfluidic Fuel Cell

MICROFLUID
IC
FUEL
CELL

WHAT IS MICROFLUIDIC CELL?

It can be defined as a fuel cell with fluid

delivery and removal, reaction sites
and electrode structures all confined to
a microfluidic channel.
Microfluidic cells typically operate in a
co-laminar flow configuration without a
physical barrier, such as a membrane
to separate cathode and anode.

HOW MICROFLUIDIC CELL WORKS?

Streams of oxidant and fuel flow

laminarly in a Y-shaped microchannel.

Examples of Fuel Formic Acid,

Ethanol, Methanol, Acetic Acid
etc.
Examples of oxidant Hydrogen
Peroxide, Potassium
Permanganate etc
Electrolyte is added to fuel and
oxidant to provide ionic charge
transfer between electrodes.

WHY ELECTROLYTE IS BEING ADDED TO

MICROFLUIDIC CELL?

To enhance ionic conduction

To decrease ohmic losses

Generally strong acid or strong base is used as

electrolyte.

Precaution- Large concentration of electrolyte

should be avoided because it can corrode the
cell.
Examples Suphuric Acid, Potassium Hydroxide

TYPES OF MICROFLUIDIC CELL CONFIGURATION

Y shaped configuration
T shaped configuration
F shaped configuration

ADVANTAGES OF MICROFLUIDIC CELL

As it does not contain membrane, all

membrane related issues were
eliminated like membrane degradation,
water management, fuel crossover etc.
It allows the cell to operate in acidic
and alkaline medium.
Size is less.

APPLICATIONS OF MICROFLUIDIC CELL

In near future, microfluidic cells are

most likely to replace batteries of low
power application such as mobiles,
laptops etc.
It can be used in DNA analysis devices,
blood diagonastics, pH gradient for use
in iso-electronic focussing, glucose
sensors, microfluidic circuit boards, etc.

LITERATURE REVIEWAuthor Reactants

s

Electrolyte

Li et al

Cell Performance
Current
density
(mA/cm2)

Power
density
(mW/cm2)

Sulphuric Acid
(0.1M)

1.5

0.18

Choban Formic
et al
Acid(2.1M)
Dissolved O2

Sulphuric Acid
(0.5M)

0.8

0.17

Choban Methanol(1M)
et al
Dissolved O2

Sulphuric Acid
(0.5M)

2.8

Sallou
m
et al

Formic
Acid(0.04M)
KMnO4(0.01M)

Sulphuric Acid
(0.5-1M)

2.8

Choban Methanol(1M)
et al
Dissolved O2

Sulphuric Acid
or

40

12

Formic
Acid(0.5M)
Dissolved O2

OBJECTIVE

To fabricate the electrodes of the cell.

To study the performance of
microfluidic fuel cell on different
concentration of fuel i.e. Acetic acid.
To study the performance of
microfluidic fuel cell on different
concentration of electrolyte.

MATERIALS USED

PMMA Sheets
Carbon paper
Pt tin catalyst
PTFE solution
Nafion
Epoxy adhesive
Teflon tape
Copper foil
Acetic acid
Hydrogen peroxide
Sulphuric acid

FABRICATION OF ELECTRODESThe anode was prepared from Pt-tin/C electrode catalysts,

activated carbon and mixture of Nafion ionomer (SE-5112,
DuPont) and PTFE dispersion, which acted as binder. The
anode electrode-catalysts slurry was prepared by
dispersing the required quantity of electode-catalysts
powder in Nafion solution with few drops of PTFE
dispersion for 30 min using an ultrasonic water bath to
obtain electrode catalyst slurry. The slurry was painted on
a carbon diffusion layer using a paintbrush uniformly in
the form of continuous wet film. Then it was dried in an
oven for 1 hour at a temperature of 80oC. The cathode
was prepared using similar compositions with Pt-black
high surface areas electrode catalyst. The dried anode
and cathode were sintered at a temperature of 300 oC in a
hot oven. The sintered electrodes were placed on the
sides of grooved microchannel.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND METHOD

Fuel cell consisting of Y-shaped microchannel with

electrodes on the inner sidewalls of the main
channel. The cell was held together between two
PMMA sheets using a set of retaining bolts positioned
around the periphery of the cell. PTFE sheet were
used for isolation and leakage prevention. The acetic
acid concentration of 1M, 1.5M and 2M was fed at
anode at different flow rate using a peristaltic pump.
Hydrogen Peroxide is used as oxidant. For different
concentration of acetic acid and electrolyte, the
current and voltage were recorded using multimeters
at variable electronic load.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:EFFECT OF FUEL CONCENTRATION ON CELL PERFORMANCE-

Cell performance improves with increasing

fuel concentration from 1.0 M to 1.5 M and
declines at higher concentration. The anode
potential shows decreased oxidation
kinetics at the acetic acid concentration of
1.0 M mainly due to dilute reactant on
anode surface. At the higher concentration
(2.0 M) of acetic acid cell performance is
decreased due to fuel crossover to cathode.

EFFECT OF ELECTROLYTE-

The peak power density increases on increasing

the electrolyte concentration from 0.1 M to 0.2
M mainly due to improved conduction and
reduced internal resistance. However, the cell
performance declines when electrolyte
concentration is increased to 0.3 M sulphuric
acid. This phenomenon can be attributed to the
reduced acetic acid electro-oxidation due to
enhanced blockage of sulphate and bisulphate
on catalyst active sites at higher electrolyte
concentration

EFFECT OF FLOW RATE-

For high Peclet-number flow regimes inter-diffusive

broadening decreases near the top and bottom walls.
Diffusive broadening is the main cause of reactant
crossover.
Reduction in the concentrations of fuel/oxidant streams
leading to decreased current density.
Fuel crossover to cathode side leading to degradation
of open-circuit potential. Since platinum is usually used
for oxygen reduction at the cathode side, crossover fuel
oxidation over Pt can block the catalytic active sites
decreasing the rate of electroreduction of oxygen at
the cathode.

EFFECT OF OXIDANT
CONCENTRATION-

After increasing the concentration of

Hydrogen Peroxide from 1M to 2M, open
circuit voltage increases due to increase in
oxygen concentration but after increasing
the concentration further open circuit
voltage reduced because more Oxygen
bubbles were produced and Oxygen gas
bubbles produced at the fuel cell cathode
introduced an unsteady two-phase flow
component which resulted in perturbed colaminar flow and reduced fuel cell
performance.

CONCLUSION

In this study microfluidic fuel cell was tested at

different fuel and electrolyte concentration.
Maximum power density and current density
was obtained at 1.5 M acetic acid concentration
and 0.2 M sulphuric acid concentration. There is
increase in OCV as we increase the flow rate.
There is a big potential for research in this field
and new advances can be explored in coming
years. High performance can be achieved by
paying careful attention in design considerations
in view of the coupled mass transport to reactive
sites and the electrochemical kinetics. Ohmic
losses should be decreased by optimizing the
spacing between electrodes and enhancing the

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