Bio-Inspired Polymers as Organic Electrodes for Fuel Cells

Fuel cells have been a significant interest in clean energy as well as a reliable clean energy solution that helps transition toward sustainable energy solutions. Bio-inspired polymers offer excellent electrochemical properties as well as low cost, ease of manufacture, and enhanced thermochemical performance features due to their crosslinking microstructure and intermolecular cross-links of several plants. Several bio-inspired polymers, such as pine tree, offer superior interconnectivity as well as improvement in the electrochemical properties of electrodes. The bio-inspired organic electrodes have several advantages such as higher electrical efficiency, more environmentally friendly, higher recyclability, and less maintenance cost. Bio-inspired polymers are able to overcome current operational challenges in low and intermediate temperature operations and have achieved high electrical potential. Organic electrodes have shown high operational voltages reaching 400–700 mAhg. The polymer structure and morphology have a significant effect on the electrochemical performance. Also, increases in glucose concentrations found in bio-inspired polymers have shown better electrochemical properties. Bio-inspired polymers that have a carbonyl group have shown high electrode performance reaching 3,000 mAh/g and more than 1,000 charging cycles. The usage of bio-inspired polymers has shown better mass transport and flow effects of ions, which have reduced entropy and pressure drop and improved the overall performance of electrodes. Moreover, bio-based polymers that contain lignin have shown better energy performance than their pristine structures.