The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in the displacement of many battery applications with an alternative technology based on a Thin Flexible Fuel Cell (TFFC). Initial target markets include the many applications in which long-life, compactness and high performance are important. Based on the needs for portable storage filled by batteries at present, a technology that increases lifetimes between charging by ten times will impact multiple applications including smartphones, tablets, test equipment, medical instruments, and small autonomous vehicles. The result will be greater flexibility and versatility imparted to the various systems impacted, and greater utility and benefit to their users.
This I-Corps project leverages a recent discovery in hydrogen fuel cell technology, the Thin Flexible Fuel Cell (TFFC). The structural components of the TFFC are constructed completely from soft materials, rather than rigid and more dense metals, plastics or composites. The result is that the device is ultra-thin (< 1 mm), sheet-like, and may be bent into almost any arbitrary shape. It is also extremely light and has among the highest recorded power densities on a mass or volume basis for compact, air-breathing, fuel cells. The fuel cell was discovered through research on the implementation of low-cost two-dimensional device fabrication involving nano-imprint lithography. The device was found to have five times the power density (W/kg) of state-of-the-art commercially available ultra-light, compact fuel cells. Moreover, the TFFC is completely passive with respect to oxygen supply and thermal management, needing no extra sub-systems for these functions.
