Alkaline-Acid Zn-H₂ O Fuel Cell for the Simultaneous Generation of Hydrogen and Electricity

An alkaline-acid Zn-H₂ O fuel cell is proposed for the simultaneous generation of electricity with an open circuit voltage of about 1.25 V and production of H₂ with almost 100 % Faradic efficiency. We demonstrate that, as a result of harvesting energy from both electrochemical neutralization and electrochemical Zn oxidation, the as-developed hybrid cell can deliver a power density of up to 80 mW cm^-2 and an energy density of 934 Wh kg^-1 and maintain long-term stability for H₂ production with an output voltage of 1.16 V at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 .