Characterization of Limiting Factors in Laminar Flow-Based Membraneless Microfuel Cells

This paper characterizes the performance-limiting factors of a membraneless microfuel cell in which two aqueous streams flow laminarly in parallel in the absence of a physical membrane without turbulent mixing. The all-liquid configuration allows for easy external addition of a reference electrode, enabling the determination of the type of performance limiting factors such as kinetics and mass transfer limitations, including the source ~anode or cathode!, and the cell resistance. In addition, options to address the present dominating mass transfer limitations at the cathode are discussed.