https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1131&context=usdoepub

A review of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: Technology, applications,and needs on fundamental research

Although current high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have taken over the commercial rechargeable battery market, increasing concerns about limited lithium resources, high cost, and insecurity of organic electrolyte scale-up limit their further development. Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), an alternative battery chemistry, have paved the way not only for realizing environmentally benign and safe energy storage devices but also for reducing the manufacturing costs of next-generation batteries. This Review underscores recent advances in aqueous ZIBs; these include the design of a highly reversible Zn anode, optimization of the electrolyte, and a wide range of cathode materials and their energy storage mechanisms. We also present recent advanced techniques that aim at overcoming the current issues in aqueous ZIB systems. This Review on the future perspectives and research directions will provide a guide for future aqueous ZIB study.

Recent Advances in Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Power consumption is forecast by the International Technology Roadmap of Semiconductors (ITRS) to pose long-term technical challenges for the semiconductor industry. The purpose of this paper is threefold: (1) to provide an overview of strategies for powering MEMS via non-regenerative and regenerative power supplies; (2) to review the fundamentals of piezoelectric energy harvesting, along with recent advancements, and (3) to discuss future trends and applications for piezoelectric energy harvesting technology. The paper concludes with a discussion of research needs that are critical for the enhancement of piezoelectric energy harvesting devices.

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Powering MEMS portable devices—a review of non-regenerative and regenerative power supply systems with special emphasis on piezoelectric energy harvesting systems

With a worldwide trend towards the efficient use of renewable energies and the rapid expansion of the electric vehicle market, the importance of rechargeable battery technologies, particularly lithium-ion batteries, has steadily increased. In the past few years, a major breakthrough in electrolyte materials was achieved by simply increasing the salt concentration in suitable salt–solvent combinations, offering technical superiority in numerous figures of merit over alternative materials. This long-awaited, extremely simple yet effective strategy can overcome most of the remaining hurdles limiting the present lithium-ion batteries without sacrificing manufacturing efficiency, and hence its impact is now widely felt in the scientific community, with serious potential for industrial development. This Review aims to provide timely and objective information that will be valuable for designing better realistic batteries, including a multi-angle analysis of their advantages and disadvantages together with future perspectives. Emphasis is placed on the pathways to address the remaining technical and scientific issues rather than re-highlighting the many technical advantages. New electrolyte materials can offer breakthroughs in the development of next-generation batteries. Here Atsuo Yamada and colleagues review the progress made and the road ahead for salt-concentrated electrolytes, an emerging and promising electrolyte candidate.

Advances and issues in developing salt-concentrated battery electrolytes

The push towards miniaturized electronics calls for the development of miniaturized energy-storage components that can enable sustained, autonomous operation of electronic devices for applications such as wearable gadgets and wireless sensor networks. Microsupercapacitors have been targeted as a viable route for this purpose, because, though storing less energy than microbatteries, they can be charged and discharged much more rapidly and have an almost unlimited lifetime. In this Review, we discuss the progress and the prospects of integrated miniaturized supercapacitors. In particular, we discuss their power performances and emphasize the need of a three-dimensional design to boost their energy-storage capacity. This is obtainable, for example, through self-supported nanostructured electrodes. We also critically evaluate the performance metrics currently used in the literature to characterize microsupercapacitors and offer general guidelines to benchmark performances towards prospective applications.

Microsupercapacitors as miniaturized energy-storage components for on-chip electronics

Influence of structure dimensions on self-breathing micro fuel cells

In a flat design, several serial connected single cells are arranged side by side in a plane. Sealing problems can be reduced by using one single MEA for all cells. This MEA must consist of segments of catalyst coated area. In order to avoid short circuits between serial interconnected cells their catalyst segments have to be electrically insulated. The distance between the segments has to be minimised in order to make the most efficient use of the MEA area. By the use of conventional coating technology the distances between electrode areas are in the range of some millimetres. With LASER ablation the distance between the segments can be reduced to less than 200 μm.

Results of removing the catalyst by LASER ablation are analysed by SEM and light microscopy. The electrical resistance between segmented areas is determined with 4-point probe impedance measurements. The influence of segmentation on cell performance is characterised in a planar serial connected test cell.

MEA Segmentation using LASER Ablation

Design and evaluation of a passive self-breathing micro fuel cell for autonomous portable applications

Die Erfindung betrifft eine Batterie mit einem elektrisch nicht leitenden Substrat (1), auf dem sie angeordnet ist, umfassend weiterhin mindestens eine Kathode (4), eine Anode (6), und eine Separator-/ Elektrolytschicht (5), die sich in Form aus elektrochemisch aktivem bzw. aktivierbarem Material und ggf. einer Polymermatrix und/oder weiteren Hilfsstoffen vorgeformten Schichten oder Folien in entsprechender Reihenfolge auf dem Substrat (1) befinden, wobei die Schichtdicke jeder Elektrodenschicht 10 µm ist, mindestens einen Stromableiter (7) und mindestens einen Batteriekontakt (2, 2a, 2b), die jeweils in elektrischem Kontakt mit einer Elektrode stehen, wobei die Batterie dadurch gekennzeichnet ist, dass sie mindestens eine erste Abdeckschicht (8, 16, 17, 21) aus einem ersten, gegenuber dem verwendeten Elektrolyt- und Elektrodenmaterial bestandigen, elektrisch isolierenden Material, das aus der Gasphase oder in Form einer Flussigkeit oder viskosen Paste aufgebracht wurde, aufweist, die zusammen mit dem Substrat und ggf. (einer) weiteren Komponente(n) eine Verkapselung bildet, durch die die Batterie gegenuber der Ausenwelt abgedichtet ist und die mindestens eine mit einem elektrisch leitenden Material verschlossene Ausnehmung (11, 18, 19) besitzt, die mit mindestens einem Stromableiter (7) der Batterie in Verbindung stehen. Die Erfindung betrifft des weiteren eine Mehrzahl solcher Batterien auf demselben Substrat sowie Verfahren zur Herstellung der genannten Batterien mit Hilfe von Wafer-Level-Techniken.

Robert Hahn

Papers

Influence of structure dimensions on self-breathing micro fuel cells

MEA Segmentation using LASER Ablation

Design and evaluation of a passive self-breathing micro fuel cell for autonomous portable applications

Batterie, insbesondere mikrobatterie, und deren herstellung mit hilfe von wafer-level-technologie

Influences of current collector foils with different opening ratios in passive polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells