Optofluidics based micro-photocatalytic fuel cell for efficient wastewater treatment and electricity generation

Abstract

In this work, an optofluidics based micro-photocatalytic fuel cell with a membrane-free and air-breathing mode was proposed to greatly enhance the cell performance. The incorporation of the optofluidic technology into a photocatalytic fuel cell not only enlarges the specific illumination and reaction area but also enhances the photon and mass transfer, which eventually boosts the photocatalytic reaction rate. Our results show that this new photocatalytic fuel cell yields a much higher performance in converting organics into electricity. A maximum power density of 0.58 mW cm(-2) was achieved. The degradation performance of this new optofluidic micro-photocatalytic fuel cell was also evaluated and the maximum degradation efficiency reached 83.9%. In short, the optofluidic micro-photocatalytic fuel cell developed in this work shows promising potential for simultaneously degrading organic pollutants and generating electricity.

The potential for microfluidics in electrochemical energy systems

“…4 Recently, optofluidic approaches have been implemented to generate electricity through the photocatalytic oxidation of organic pollutants in water. 28,29 The high surface to volume ratio at microscales and the possibility of fabricating transparent microfluidic devices together with controlling light/fluid interactions makes optofluidics a powerful tool for solar-based energy conversion.…”

Process intensification technologies for CO2 capture and conversion – a review

“…The small size nature of microreactor operating in continuous regime have made it promising in intensification of thermally driven [120] and photocatalytic reactions [121], among other applications. In photocatalytic reactions, in addition to overcoming thermal and mass diffusion limitations, in applications where light distribution determines the yield [122], microreactors allow for uniform light distribution owing to its small size, short optical paths and large surface area to volume ratio [123]. Given the high photon density in micro-reactors, it is clear that short reaction times are needed compared to conventional large scale vessels [122].…”

Review on optofluidic microreactors for artificial photosynthesis

“…Optofluidic microreactors have been firstly applied for water purification [ 50 ], water splitting [ 73 ], photocatalytic fuel cells [ 75 ] and then CO 2 reduction [ 76 ]. Chen et al combined the optofluidics with the TiO 2 /carbon paper composite membrane for the photoreduction of CO 2 [ 76 ], as shown in Fig.…”