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A micro photocatalytic fuel cell with an air-breathing, membraneless and monolithic design

平铺式无膜自呼吸阴极微型光催化燃料电池

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  • Engineering Sciences
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Science Bulletin

Abstract

In this study, a membraneless, monolithic micro photocatalytic fuel cell with an air-breathing cathode was developed for simultaneous wastewater treatment and electricity generation. In this newly-developed micro photocatalytic fuel cell, the photoanode and cathode were arranged with a shoulder-to-shoulder design, forming two planar electrodes. Such design offers several advantages of enhanced mass transfer, uniform light distribution, short light transfer path, membrane elimination and easy fabrication, integration, and compatibility with other microdevices. The performance of this type fuel cell was evaluated by using methanol as a model pollutant under the alkaline condition. Experimental results indicated the developed micro photocatalytic fuel cell was able to show good photo-response to the illumination and satisfactory performance as well as durability. Parametric study on the cell performance was also performed. It was found that increasing the light intensity, methanol concentration and KOH concentration could improve the cell performance. But for the effect of the liquid flow rate, it was shown that the cell performance firstly increased with increasing the liquid flow rate and then decreased with further increasing the liquid flow rate. This study not only opens a new avenue for the design of the micro photocatalytic fuel cell but also is helpful for the optimization of the operating conditions.

摘要

本文提出了一种平铺式无膜自呼吸阴极微型光催化燃料电池用以处理废水的同时产生电。在这个新开发的微型光催化燃料电池中,阴阳两极并行排列布置在同一个平面上,形成两个平行电极。这种设计具有强化传质、光分布均匀、光程短、无膜和容易制备、集成及与其他微型设备兼容等优点。新开发的光催化燃料电池采用甲醇作为模型燃料,在碱性环境中测试评价其性能。结果表明,该微型光催化燃料电池具有良好的光响应特性、电池性能和运行稳定性。另外,还研究了不同运行参数对电池性能的影响规律。结果表明增加光照强度、甲醇浓度和氢氧化钾浓度均有益于电池性能提升。随着进液速度的增加,电池性能先增强后减弱。本工作不仅为微型光催化燃料电池的结构设计提供了新思路,而且为优化运行参数提供了借鉴。

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51576021, 51222603, 51276208 and 51325602) and the National High-Tech R&D Program of China (2015AA043503).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems (Chongqing University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Ming Xia, Rong Chen, Xun Zhu, Qiang Liao, Zhibin Wang, Xuefeng He & Long Jiao

  2. Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Ming Xia, Rong Chen, Xun Zhu, Qiang Liao, Zhibin Wang, Xuefeng He & Long Jiao

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

    Liang An

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  1. Ming Xia
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  2. Rong Chen
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  3. Xun Zhu
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  5. Liang An
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Correspondence to Rong Chen, Xun Zhu or Liang An.

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Xia, M., Chen, R., Zhu, X. et al. A micro photocatalytic fuel cell with an air-breathing, membraneless and monolithic design. Sci. Bull. 61, 1699–1710 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1178-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-016-1178-8

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