An All-in-One Electrode for High-Performance Liquid-Feed Micro Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

Contrary to the conventional layer-separated electrode design, we report a metal foam-based all-in-one electrode that incorporates the flow field, backing layer, micro-porous layer, and catalyst layer into a whole. This innovative design facilitates the mass and charge transport as well as extends the three-phase boundary, thereby enabling to miniaturize the cell system while enhance the power output. It has been demonstrated that when applying a pair of 4.0 x 4.0 x 0.5 mm (length x width x height) all-in-one electrodes to the liquid-feed micro polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, the peak power density goes up to 123 mW cm(-2) even at room temperature, which is much higher than that of the conventional cell system. The present architecture design meets the potential demand of the high-capacity lab-on-a-chip applications. (C) 2016 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.