Poly(dimethylsiloxane)-Based Microfluidic Electrochemical Devices

Abstract

In another application, the devices can be operated as passive microfluidic fuel cells incorporating high surface area/porous metal and metal alloy electrodes that are embedded and fully immersed in liquid electrolyte confined in the channels of a PDMS-based microfluidic network. A hydrogen-air fuel cell of the latter design exhibits exceptional durability and high performance, most notably yielding stable output power (>100 days) without the use of an anode-cathode separator membrane. The stability of the device for long-term operation was modeled using a stack of three fuel cells as a power supply for a portable display that otherwise uses a 3 V battery.