Influence of electrode groove geometry on the passive control of the depletion layer in microfluidic fuel cells

Mitigation of the concentration boundary layer is an essential requirement to improve the power density of microfluidic fuel cells. In this study, the formation of a groove shape in the surface of the electrodes, located in parallel on the bottom of the channel, is proposed for the passive control of the depletion layer. The flow field inside the channel is numerically simulated and cell performance is experimentally measured for the various groove formation patterns (converging, parallel, or diverging) and tilt angles (30, 45, or 60 degrees). Experimentally measured cell performance also shows superior results at the best conditions as determined by numerical modeling, where the interdiffusion zone at the fuel-oxidant interface is not significantly expanded and the flow in the direction normal to the electrode surface is large. Our results show that the depletion region is well-controlled when the groove angle is large and when the groove pattern is not parallel, due to the increase in chaotic mixing. At these conditions, with formic acid as the fuel and a platinum electrode, the maximum current density and peak power density are increased by 38.42% and 38.09%, respectively, compared to the values for flat electrodes. Even better cell performance is expected if the optimum design of the groove shape is determined using flow analysis.