Thin-Layer Fuel Cell for Teaching and Classroom Demonstrations

摘要

Many efforts are currently underway to develop andoptimize novel forms of fuel cells. Among these, micro-fuelcells are believed to be particularly promising candidates forreplacing solid-state batteries owing to their potential to offergreater energy densities (1-3). Because of the inherently lowrisk involved in handling small volume of fluids in micro-fuelcells, these devices can also be employed as safe teaching tools fordemonstrating the operation of fuel cells. Hydrogen is the mostcommon fuel for use with such systems because of its superiorelectrochemical reactivity and energy density, but its storage andsafe handling are troublesome. For teaching and demonstrationsin a classroom, it would be safer to use unitized regenerative fuelcells where hydrogen fuel is produced in situ by electrolysis. Thiswould eliminate the need for an external source of hydrogen andthe delivery system for supplying the fuel to electrodes.