article · Chemical Physics Impact
Air-breathing polymer electrolyte fuel cells offer a lightweight, lower-cost alternative to conventional forced-convection fuel cell systems by eliminating external air-supply hardware. However, their passive nature creates operational difficulties with oxygen transport, water handling, heat regulation, and sensitivity to ambient conditions. An analysis of 224 research publications from 2000 to 2025 demonstrates sustained interest in the field, with publications growing at an annual rate of 8.67 percent. Current technical focus centres on gas diffusion layer design, flow-field architectures, water management, numerical modelling, and component durability. Emerging subfields include advanced membranes for miniature or high-temperature systems and piezoelectric mechanisms to aid mass transport. Overall progress relies on solving mass-transport bottlenecks, strengthening membrane stability, and achieving effective stack-level thermal control to support compact hydrogen-power applications.
Conventional fuel cells require heavy, power-consuming air pumps and fans. Air-breathing designs reduce system weight and complexity by taking oxygen directly from the surrounding air. Overcoming their passive operating limitations could enable simpler, cleaner, and more compact hydrogen power sources across remote environments and lightweight devices where traditional fuel cell equipment is impractical.
The technology targets portable power, off-grid installations, and unmanned aerial vehicles requiring compact and reliable hydrogen energy. Because this review surveys ongoing laboratory research into fundamental issues like water balance, membrane degradation, and thermal management, the underlying technology remains in development rather than near-market readiness. Commercial developers can use identified priorities in flow-field design and advanced materials to guide system prototyping.
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Air-breathing polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are a simplified alternative to conventional forced-convection PEFC systems, eliminating external air-supply devices to reduce system complexity, weight, and cost, and to minimise parasitic losses. Despite these advantages, their passive configuration poses critical challenges in oxygen mass transport, water management, thermal regulation, and environmental sensitivity. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric and systematic review of air-breathing PEFC research published between 2000 and 2025. Using the Scopus database and a PRISMA-guided screening framework, 224 relevant documents were analysed through the Bibliometrix package in RStudio and VOSviewer to map publication trends, international collaborations, keyword evolution, and thematic research clusters. The results indicate irregular but sustained growth in research output, with an annual growth rate of 8.67%. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified major research themes centred on water management, gas diffusion layer optimisation, flow-field design, numerical modelling, thermal diagnostics, and durability enhancement. Emerging niches include piezoelectric-assisted mass transport and advanced membrane materials for high-temperature and miniature systems. The findings highlight that future technological progress depends on improved mass-transport engineering, enhanced membrane stability, optimised passive flow architectures, and integrated stack-level thermal management. For researchers, the study clarifies the field's conceptual evolution and highlights the most critical research gaps. For industry stakeholders, it provides strategic insights into design priorities for compact, reliable hydrogen-powered systems suitable for portable, off-grid, and unmanned aerial vehicle applications.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.chphi.2026.101159
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