Bethapudi, VS;
Hack, J;
Trogadas, P;
Cho, JIS;
Rasha, L;
Hinds, G;
Shearing, PR;
... Coppens, MO; + view all
(2019)
A lung-inspired printed circuit board polymer electrolyte fuel cell.
Energy Conversion and Management
, 202
, Article 112198. 10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112198.
Preview |
Text
PCB Fractal_Manuscript_Revised_with marking_Final.pdf - Accepted Version Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Fractal cathode flow-fields, inspired by the flow mechanism of air inside lungs, can provide homogeneous, scalable and uniform distribution of reactants to polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) electrodes. However, the complex 3D flow-fields demonstrated previously face manufacturing challenges, such as requiring selective laser sintering, an additive manufacturing method that is expensive to scale up. Here, a lung-inspired cathode flow-field is introduced and fabricated using low-cost, lightweight printed circuit boards (PCB). The uniformity and alignment between individual PCB layers producing the fractal hierarchy of flow channels have been characterised using X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT). The performance of the fractal flow-field exceeds that of conventional single-serpentine flow-fields and is particularly beneficial when operating on air with a low relative humidity. The lung-inspired design is shown to lead to a more stable operation than the single-serpentine design, as a result of uniform distribution of reactants.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A lung-inspired printed circuit board polymer electrolyte fuel cell |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112198 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2019.112198 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Fractal flow-field, X-ray computed tomography, Polarisation, Printed circuit board, Lung-inspired |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Chemical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10085626 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
