Because of potential high energy densities,microfluidic fuel cells can serve as micro-scale power sources.Because microfluidic fuel cells typically operate in the co-laminar flow regime to enable a membrane-less desig...Because of potential high energy densities,microfluidic fuel cells can serve as micro-scale power sources.Because microfluidic fuel cells typically operate in the co-laminar flow regime to enable a membrane-less design,they generally suffer from severe mass transfer limitations with respect to diffusion transport.To address this issue,a novel channel design that integrates slanted groove micro-mixers on the side walls of the channel is proposed.Numerical modeling on the design of groove micro-mixers and grooveless design demonstrates a mass transfer enhancement that has a 115%higher limiting current density and well-controlled convective mixing between the oxidant and the fuel streams with the use of slanted groove micro-mixers.Moreover,the growth of the thickness of the depletion boundary layer is found to be terminated within approximately 2 mm from the channel entrance,which is distinct from the constantly growing pattern in the grooveless design.In addition,a simplified mass transfer model capable of modeling the mass transfer prFocess with the presence of the transverse secondary flow is developed.Further,a dimensionless correlation is derived to analyze the effects of the design parameters on the limiting current density.The present theoretical study paves the way towards an optimal design of a microfluidic fuel cell integrating groove micro-mixers.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51606164).
文摘Because of potential high energy densities,microfluidic fuel cells can serve as micro-scale power sources.Because microfluidic fuel cells typically operate in the co-laminar flow regime to enable a membrane-less design,they generally suffer from severe mass transfer limitations with respect to diffusion transport.To address this issue,a novel channel design that integrates slanted groove micro-mixers on the side walls of the channel is proposed.Numerical modeling on the design of groove micro-mixers and grooveless design demonstrates a mass transfer enhancement that has a 115%higher limiting current density and well-controlled convective mixing between the oxidant and the fuel streams with the use of slanted groove micro-mixers.Moreover,the growth of the thickness of the depletion boundary layer is found to be terminated within approximately 2 mm from the channel entrance,which is distinct from the constantly growing pattern in the grooveless design.In addition,a simplified mass transfer model capable of modeling the mass transfer prFocess with the presence of the transverse secondary flow is developed.Further,a dimensionless correlation is derived to analyze the effects of the design parameters on the limiting current density.The present theoretical study paves the way towards an optimal design of a microfluidic fuel cell integrating groove micro-mixers.
